Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in Missouri
Doctor not disclosing important information.
Can a doctor be held liable for not
disclosing information about a
medical condition? Specifically my
mothers doctor knew that she had
a broken back going back nearly a
year now. He never told her about
the break, she has been in
enormous pain - while the doctor
told her to 'Suck It Up'. Finally she
demanded an MRI - and when she
got one, the doctor that did the MRI
showed her the break. Mom later
found out that the doctor knew
about the break a year ago. The
reason he knew a year ago was
because she had fell, and was
immediately having pains - and so
asked the doctor for an x-ray, after
a week of delay he finally agreed
and after having taken the x-ray,
he told my mother at the time that
he didn't see anything wrong - and
that as for the pain, she should just
'suck it up'. There are now
ruptured discs as well as 'spurs'
(not sure what that is yet myself).
We are looking into seeing if there
is possible proof that the other
problems may be due to negligence
in treating the break.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Doctor not disclosing important information.
What you have described is unusual and not what a patient should expect from a doctor. I often hear stories that make me think "no way this happened" - either the client got it wrong, made it up, or didn't hear all the facts. Occasionally, though, stories this hard to believe are true, and we file a lawsuit.
More often, there is a miscommunication between the doctor and patient, and not the type of mistake that apparently occurred here. Either way, you owe it to your peace of mind to look further into the matter.
I don't mean to cast aspersions on you- you should look at the medical records immediately! If the x-ray report or some other document shows that the doctor knew about the fracture and did nothing, your family should do something, whether that be a lawsuit or a complaint to the state disciplinary board.
My firm (and other trial lawyers) review matters like this every day, and I would be honored to discuss this further with you, at no initial charge.
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