New Mexico Prostate Cancer Misdiagnosis
Prostate cancer can be a devastating condition to contract on its own. Should you find that a loved one’s prostate cancer went undiagnosed by negligent medical professionals, your fight for recovery can be devastatingly frustrating. Fortunately, there are laws in New Mexico that allow the loved ones of a family member with undiagnosed prostate cancer to take action on that individual’s behalf.
Individuals contending with a failed prostate cancer diagnosis can pursue compensation alongside a personal injury attorney. Alternatively, a party’s loved ones can pursue compensation for wrongful death and funeral expenses with a failure to diagnose prostate cancer lawsuit in New Mexico.
Medical Negligence and Failed Cancer Diagnoses in New Mexico
Failure to diagnose prostate cancer, alongside other cancers, falls under the broader category of medical negligence. Medical negligence describes a medical professional’s refusal or inability to provide you with the care you need.
In the case of a failed prostate cancer diagnosis, this could mean that a medical professional failed to:
- Offer you the appropriate tests
- Recognize signs of cancer on test results
- Inform you of your test results
- Provide you with the means for cancer treatment
Victims of a failure to diagnose prostate cancer can take legal action against offending parties while seeking out treatment. In other cases, should a loved one pass, New Mexico allows specific individuals to take legal action on a loved one’s behalf.
Who to Hold Liable for a Missed Cancer Diagnosis
The question of liability in the case of failure to diagnose prostate cancer falls not on an individual. Instead, should you wish to take up a complaint against a medical professional, you will actually take up a complaint against their employer.
Most employers within the medical industry offer their employees some manner of legal protection when faced with failed diagnoses. This means that your initial legal proceedings will likely involve representatives of the medical institution in question. It can be intimidating to go up against a medical institution’s legal team, but you should not let them talk you out of legal action.
Instead, you can collaborate with a medical malpractice attorney in New Mexico. A seasoned lawyer can communicate with these representatives on your behalf.
Evidence of a Failed Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Before you can bring a complaint against a medical institution, you must compile evidence indicating that said institution failed to diagnose a loved one’s or your prostate cancer in a timely manner. You can do this by seeking out a third-party medical opinion regarding your health. You can also gather relevant documents regarding your initial treatment.
You do not have to gather this evidence on your own. Instead, a lawyer can contact the liable medical institution and gather the documents needed to make your case. They can also connect you with a third party who can share their professional opinions independently or in court.
The evidence you bring forward in your initial complaint helps a court determine whether or not to move your case forward. As such, you should also be prepared to provide your own testimony regarding your treatment at the hands of the liable party.
You Deserve Compensation for a Failed Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
The evidence of treatment you present also helps you establish what compensation you may be entitled to. The purpose of a failed prostate cancer diagnosis claim, after all, is to get you the financial means you need to restore your previous quality of life.
In cancer cases, in particular, both victims and their loved ones have the right to pursue non-economic damages in addition to coverage for their bills. Your non-economic damages can reflect the cost of your pain and suffering, emotional stress, and any mental health conditions you may have developed while seeking out treatment for your situation.
You can apply the cost of these losses via multipliers to the sum of your economic losses. Put another way, an experienced lawyer can calculate the sum of your medical bills, lost wages, and related expenses before using state-approved multipliers to stand in for the stress tied up in your failed cancer diagnosis.
Prostate Cancer Settlement Offers and How to React
When contending with a medical institution’s legal team, there is a chance that said institution may attempt to limit the amount of time that both of you spend in court. As such, you may receive a settlement offer in the wake of a failed cancer diagnosis.
Settlement offers can get you the financial support you need to contend with your related bills without you having to go to court. However, most insurance companies affiliated with a medical institution want to protect their and the hospital’s bottom line. As such, these parties may make you a less-than-substantial settlement offer and expect you not to research your other options.
Should you receive a settlement offer that you believe does not address the full breadth of your economic concerns, you can negotiate for more comprehensive coverage.
New Mexico Limits Your Actionable Time
There is a chance that, should you take too long to build your case, New Mexico civil courts may choose to deny you the right to pursue a conversation before a judge. N.M. Stat. Ann. § 37-1-8 applies to failure to diagnose prostate cancer lawsuits in New Mexico.
This means that you have a total of two years from the day your condition is detected to bring your case forward. If you are a loved one pursuing a case on behalf of an individual who has passed, you have two years from the day either your loved one passes or they are diagnosed with prostate cancer to act.
You can determine how the applicable statute of limitations dictates your submission timeline by collaborating with a medical malpractice attorney in New Mexico.
Reach Out to a Medical Malpractice Attorney in New Mexico Today
You may have the right, in the wake of a loved one’s undiagnosed prostate cancer, to take legal action on that party’s behalf. For more information about your right to file a lawsuit, you can contact a medical malpractice attorney in New Mexico.
At Dominguez Law, we treat our cases with both compassion and aggression, with the goal of getting you the compensation you deserve. Do not wait to get in touch. Call us at (505) 850-5854 or fill out our contact form to schedule a free consultation.
We also speak Spanish.