Ohio – Misdiagnosis
Posted on : 08-05-2008 | By : Legal Information | In : Medical Malpractice, Other Legal Topics, Personal Injury
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This past winter, I went to the doctor for a bad case of coughing and also for congestion. The doctor spent about 5 minutes with me and told me I had a sinus infection, and then prescribed very expensive antibiotics to treat this. My wife caught the same thing I had and was also told the same thing. After taking the antibiotics, and then getting stomach ssues since it destroys the good bacteria in the stomach, we found out that it did nothing for us and that we actually had the flu. I contacted the billing department, and they said we’re stuck with the bill.
My question is this – is this something I can not pay, and if so, can I take the company (I believe they are a corporation) to small claims court and ask for a refund for what we did pay (I paid since I did not want us to go to a collection agency/bad credit). In addition, since the company caused us additional expenses by prescribing expensive (>$100/prescription) medicine, can we ask for compensation for this as well?
I guess it doesn’t hurt to try and go to small claims court, but I don’t think you have much of a case.
I forgot to mention my biggest issue with this – the doctor did not take the time to diagnosis this correctly. She couldn’t do the simplest of things – that is determine if this was a bacterial infection or a viral infection. That is the basis of my case – that she did not do a legitimate job of diagnosising the condition – almost to the point of maliciousness.
I had a similar problem with my doctor recently. I did some research on the internet for my symptoms and figured out what I had was bacterial, not viral. After arguing with my doctor for like 5 minutes, she prescribed me both and anti-bacterial and anti-viral medication.
It does sound like your doctor did misdianose your illness. The problem is, what loss did you suffer? did you miss work? How much were your presciptions? If it is less than $100, you may just want to let it go.
In addition to me, the doctor did the same diagnosis on my wife. Here’s the totals:
$82 X 2 = $164 for office visits (this is the part that irks me the most)
$100 X 2 = $200 for prescriptions
Total = $364
I’m more about principle on this than the actual dollar value.