If you have recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease after spending a long time seeking a diagnosis of your debilitating symptoms, it likely comes as a relief that you finally have a name for the cause of your suffering. However, you probably also feel frustrated about the time you spent suffering and trying to achieve a diagnosis, while your medical provider failed to successfully figure out the problem.
The time that you spent trying to find a diagnosis is time that you could have spent treating your illness and preventing it from becoming chronic. Therefore, it is likely that you have asked yourself whether you might be able to file a medical malpractice claim against your medical provider because of his or her failure to diagnose.
Why did it take so long for me to be diagnosed with Lyme disease?
The symptoms of Lyme disease often arise slowly and can take years to appear. A person first becomes exposed to the disease when they are bitten by an infected tick. However, it can be years before they experience their first symptoms. These can include chronic fatigue, joint pain, dizziness, fever, and headaches. These symptoms can be attributed to a wide number of illnesses; therefore, diagnosis can be difficult.
However, a competent doctor should be able to ask the right questions and deduce the most likely possibilities for your diagnosis. From there, he or she would be able to take medical tests and establish the cause.
If you spent years seeking a diagnosis for Lyme disease, it is possible that you have a strong medical malpractice case, and you should consider taking action.
Source: Lyme Disease, “Lyme Disease Diagnosis,” accessed April 12, 2018