When a radiologist overlooks a hairline fracture, a cancerous tumor, or a dangerous bleed on an imaging scan, a patient loses the one thing they cannot get back: time. If you suspect this happened to you, your concerns are valid, but interpreting the standards of medical imaging is a difficult task.
This is the specific challenge in radiology malpractice cases: digging into the evidence to determine what a competent radiologist should have seen. The central question becomes whether a reasonable radiologist, under similar circumstances, would have identified the abnormality. You might feel uncertain whether your situation qualifies as medical malpractice or is simply a case of bad luck, but the good news is that you do not have to make that legal determination on your own.
At Wapner Newman, we understand that while you are dealing with a worsening condition or a new diagnosis that should have been caught much earlier, the last thing on your mind is trying to manage Pennsylvania’s complicated medical statutes. Our team handles the investigation from start to finish so that you may focus all your energy on your health and your family.
If you suspect a misread X-ray, CT scan, or MRI changed your prognosis for the worse, call Wapner Newman for a free consultation at (215) 569-0900.
Why Choose Wapner Newman for Medical Malpractice Claims?
Our History & Roots
Founded in 1978 by Morton Wapner and Robert Newman, our firm was established on the core belief that every person harmed by negligence deserves fierce and dedicated legal advocates.
Our office, located at 1628 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Suite #800, is just blocks from City Hall, placing us at the heart of the city we serve.
A Service Built Around Your Needs
We recognize that radiology errors and delayed diagnoses frequently lead to debilitating health conditions that could make travel difficult, if not impossible. Your ability to get justice should not depend on your ability to get to us. That is why if you are unable to come to our Center City office, we will come to you, whether you are at home or in the hospital.
If needed, we may also arrange to pick you up for appointments. Your recovery is the priority and we will handle the rest.
A Notable Track Record of Success
Our practice has a long history of holding negligent parties accountable in difficult cases. We have secured significant results for clients harmed by medical errors, including an $8.4 million verdict for a brain injury that involved a delayed diagnosis. Our work on the historic $227 million settlement for victims of the Market Street Collapse demonstrates our ability to handle high-stakes litigation against powerful, well-defended institutions.
Our Team Is Your Team
Attorneys like Marc G. Brecher and Adam Getson have dedicated years of their practice to medical malpractice litigation. At Wapner Newman, we assign a principal partner to every case, ensuring you receive the full benefit of our firm’s collective experience. This partner is supported by a dedicated team of legal professionals who work together to build the strongest case possible.
No Financial Risk to You
We handle all medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you pay no upfront costs or attorney’s fees. We only get paid if we secure a financial recovery for you. This approach allows you to pursue justice without adding financial strain to an already stressful time.
Calculating Damages: What Is Your Case Worth?
The goal of a medical malpractice claim is to pursue compensation that helps restore the financial security and quality of life you would have had if the error never occurred.
Compensation, legally referred to as damages, is typically broken down into several categories:
Economic Damages
These are the tangible, calculable financial losses tied directly to your injury.
- Past and Future Medical Bills: This includes costs for the treatments you now need because your condition worsened. For example, you may need more aggressive chemotherapy, a more invasive surgery that could have been avoided, or long-term rehabilitative care.
- Lost Wages & Earning Capacity: If the progression of your illness forces you to miss work, take a lower-paying job, or stop working altogether, you may be compensated for both past lost income and the wages you would have reasonably earned in the future.
Non-Economic Damages
These damages compensate you for the intangible, personal losses that do not have a specific price tag.
- Pain and Suffering: This accounts for the physical pain from your untreated condition and the mental anguish of knowing a delayed diagnosis allowed your illness to progress.
- Loss of Life’s Pleasures: This addresses the inability to enjoy hobbies, participate in family activities, or engage in life as you once did because of your worsened health.
The Loss of Chance Doctrine in Pennsylvania
This legal principle is especially relevant in radiology cases involving pre-existing conditions like cancer. The loss of chance doctrine allows you to seek compensation even if you already had a less-than-50% chance of survival. You are compensated for the percentage of survival or recovery chance you lost due to the diagnostic delay.
For instance, if a timely diagnosis gave you a 40% chance of a better outcome, and the radiologist’s error reduced that chance to 10%, you could recover damages for that lost 30% opportunity.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are rarely awarded in Pennsylvania and are reserved for cases where a healthcare provider’s conduct was outrageously careless or intentionally malicious. Unlike other damages, their purpose is not to compensate the victim but to punish the defendant and deter similar behavior in the future.
Understanding Radiology Errors and Liability in Philadelphia
In legal terms, a mistake only becomes malpractice when it represents a deviation from the accepted standard of care. This means proving that the error was not just an unfortunate oversight but a failure to provide the level of skill and attention that a reasonably competent peer would have offered in the same situation.
Common Types of Radiology Errors
Radiology errors generally fall into three categories:
- Perceptual Errors: This is the most common type of error. The abnormality, like a tumor or fracture, is visible on the scan, but the radiologist simply does not see it. This may happen due to factors like fatigue, distraction, or simply scrolling through hundreds of images too quickly.
- Cognitive (or Interpretive) Errors: In these cases, the radiologist sees the abnormality but misinterprets what it is. For example, they might wrongly classify a malignant tumor as a benign cyst or dismiss a hairline fracture as a digital artifact on the image.
- Communication Failures: Here, the radiologist correctly identifies a serious issue and includes it in their written report, but they fail to urgently communicate the significant finding to the referring physician. Just uploading a report about a life-threatening condition to a patient portal may not be enough.
Common Modalities Involved in Diagnostic Errors
Errors may happen with any type of medical imaging, including:
- Mammography: Missed signs of breast cancer.
- CT Scans: Overlooked strokes, appendicitis, blood clots, or lung nodules.
- X-Rays: Missed fractures, particularly subtle hairline or stress fractures.
- MRI Scans: Failure to identify soft tissue tears, spinal cord compression, or brain abnormalities.
Who May Be Held Liable?
Depending on the facts, liability may fall on one or more parties:
- The Radiologist: As the physician responsible for interpreting the scan, the radiologist is the primary person who may be held liable.
- The Hospital or Imaging Facility: A facility may be held responsible for systemic failures, such as understaffing that pressures radiologists to read scans too quickly, using faulty or poorly maintained equipment, or failing to have proper communication protocols in place.
- The Technician: If the radiology technician performs the scan incorrectly, resulting in blurry or incomplete images that make an accurate diagnosis impossible, they could also be held liable.
The Pennsylvania Statute of Limitations
Act promptly if you suspect a radiology error. In Pennsylvania, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims is generally two years.
However, the state follows the Discovery Rule, which might extend this deadline. This rule states that the two-year clock may not start ticking until the date you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that you were harmed by a medical error.
Dealing with Insurance and Risk Management
After a potential radiology error is identified, you will not be dealing with the doctor directly. Instead, you will be facing their medical malpractice insurer and, in many cases, a hospital’s risk management department. In Pennsylvania, large claims may also involve the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Fund, a state fund that provides an additional layer of coverage for catastrophic injuries.
While their representatives may sound caring and concerned, their primary responsibility is to protect their financial interests. This involves investigating claims to limit their payout wherever possible.
Strategies to Watch For
- The Courtesy Call: A risk manager might call you to apologize for the misunderstanding or explain what happened. The true purpose of this call is to get you to make statements that could be used against you later. For example, they might ask questions designed to get you to admit you had certain symptoms much earlier, which they could use to argue that you share the blame for the diagnostic delay.
- The Quick, Lowball Settlement Offer: They might offer you a fast payout before you have a clear understanding of your long-term prognosis. This offer may seem tempting when medical bills are piling up, but it is almost always far less than the full value of your claim and is meant to close the case before the full extent of the harm is known.
- The Denial of Causation: A common defense strategy is to admit an error occurred but argue that the outcome would have been the same regardless. They will claim that even if the cancer or fracture had been caught earlier, your prognosis would not have changed. This is a complicated medical argument that requires strong expert testimony to counter.
Why You Need Representation
Hospitals and their insurance companies have teams of defense lawyers on their side. Their job is to protect the institution. You need a team that is dedicated to protecting you. A Philadelphia radiology error attorney works to level the playing field, ensuring that your rights are defended and that any arguments made by the defense are rigorously challenged.
FAQs: Radiology Malpractice Concerns
Can I sue if the radiologist was a locum tenens or independent contractor?
Yes. Even if the radiologist was not a direct employee of the hospital, the hospital itself may be held liable under a legal doctrine known as ostensible agency or apparent authority. This principle applies if the hospital presented the doctor in a way that would lead a reasonable patient to believe they were a hospital employee, and you relied on that belief when seeking care.
What if the error was an incidental finding not related to why I had the scan?
A radiologist’s duty is generally to report any and all significant abnormalities they see on a scan, not just the specific issue the ordering doctor was looking for. If a radiologist performing a scan of your spine for back pain sees a suspicious nodule on your lung but fails to report it, they may still be held liable for the consequences of that omission.
What if I am partially at fault for not following up sooner?
Pennsylvania follows a modified comparative negligence rule. This means you may still recover damages as long as you are determined to be 50% or less at fault for the harm you suffered. If you are found to be partially at fault, your compensation would be reduced by your percentage of fault.
Don’t Let Uncertainty Prevent You From Seeking Justice
At Wapner Newman, we have the resources to consult with highly qualified, independent medical experts who will review your scans and provide the testimony needed to prove that a diagnostic error was preventable. We know what it takes to build a strong medical malpractice case.
If you are unable to come to us, we will come to you. Take the first step toward accountability today. Call Wapner Newman for a free and confidential case evaluation at (215) 569-0900.