If you have experienced a breast cancer misdiagnosis as a result of negligence, you might be able to seek compensation. Medical practitioners must provide their patients with a minimum standard of care. Failure to provide this, leading to you suffering avoidable harm, may constitute medical negligence, and you could claim. 

You might have questions, such as: 

• What could happen if I am misdiagnosed with cancer?
• How are medical negligence claims made?
• How much misdiagnosis compensation could I be awarded? 

This guide will answer all of these questions and cover how you could be affected by medical negligence, using specific examples. Furthermore, we will explore how you can strengthen your claim by gathering evidence. 

You may benefit from speaking directly to an advisor from our team. They are on call to help you at a time that suits you best. You can get in touch by: 

• Call 0113 460 1216
• Complete our contact us form
• Speak with a member of our team using the live chat

Choose A Section

1. A Guide To Claiming For Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis
2. When Can You Claim For Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis?
3. What Medical Misdiagnosis Compensation Could You Receive From A Claim?
4. Potential Evidence That Could Help You Claim For Misdiagnosed Breast Cancer
5. How Could Our Panel Of No Win No Fee Solicitors Help You If You’ve Been Misdiagnosed With Cancer?
6. Learn More About Claiming For Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis

A Guide To Claiming For Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis

You are now aware that you can make a breast cancer misdiagnosis claim if you have been avoidably harmed due to a medical practitioner breaching their duty of care, but how could this happen? Examples include: 

• Being mistakenly diagnosed with another illness when you actually have cancer
• Being misdiagnosed with cancer despite having another illness

You cannot claim just because you have received a misdiagnosis; it must have resulted from negligence and caused avoidable harm. Sometimes a medical professional will be required to harm you to adhere to their duty of care; for example, the physical or emotional impacts of chemotherapy could affect your quality of life, but could be required to treat your condition. If administering chemotherapy was part of your doctor’s duty of care, you’d be unable to claim for this.

For more information in regards to claiming for misdiagnosed cancer, please contact a member of our team. If you have a valid claim, you could be connected with a lawyer from our panel. 

Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Stories

We have provided you with some breast cancer misdiagnosis stories that have occurred in real life. 

Doctors misdiagnosed a woman with aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. As a result, she underwent chemotherapy before the mistake was realised. She later required reconstructive surgery to rectify the mistake, which left her “traumatised”. The hospital responsible for the issue branded it a “human error”.

Another scenario involved a woman who had previously been diagnosed with breast cancer and had problems with coughing, wheezing and breathlessness. She was treated as if she had worsening asthma and chest infections. Eventually, it was found that the cancer in her breast had spread to her lungs. 

After finding a 1cm lump on her breast, a woman visited her GP and was told the issue was a swollen lymph gland with no further action needed. Roughly 17 months after, she revisited her GP, and 2 lumps were found. After coughing up blood, she was admitted to the hospital, where a CT scan showed the severity of her worsened cancer. Despite receiving 6 cycles of chemotherapy, she passed away several months later. 

If you have been avoidably harmed due to a breast cancer misdiagnosis, you could be eligible to claim. Please do not hesitate to speak with our advisors. 

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-49049988

Source: https://breastcancernow.org/about-us/news-personal-stories/my-secondary-breast-cancer-was-misdiagnosed-chest-infection

Source: https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/23039143.newcastle-mum-two-dies-breast-cancer-34/

When Can You Claim For Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis?

To make a successful claim, you must be able to prove that you were owed a duty of care which was breached, leading to you suffering unnecessary harm. In some cases, your doctor could misdiagnose your condition while adhering to the duty of care that they owe (for example, because your condition is asymptomatic and they could not be expected to make the right diagnosis). You need to show the presence of both a breach of duty and of avoidable harm. 

Below, we have included examples of how breast cancer could be misdiagnosed: 

• A nurse may misread a scan which leads to you being wrongly diagnosed. Subsequently, you are not given the treatment you require, and your condition significantly worsens to the point where it can no longer be treated. 
• Your scan is mislabeled, which results in your diagnosis being based on another patient’s scan. Due to this, you are incorrectly diagnosed and do not receive the treatment you need.
• A doctor may misinterpret your test results which leads to the wrong diagnosis. Consequently, you undergo chemotherapy and surgery which makes you ill and which you did not need. 

You could also be psychologically impacted by a misdiagnosis, which could also be considered in your settlement amounts. For further details as to how a breast cancer misdiagnosis could happen because of negligence,

What Medical Misdiagnosis Compensation Could You Receive From A Claim?

The medical misdiagnosis compensation you may be entitled to for a successful claim may comprise two heads of claims. You may be awarded general damages for any pain and suffering that has been endured as a result of the breast cancer misdiagnosis. This can include physical and psychological effects. 

For instance, a misdiagnosis could mean you require treatments of a more severe nature than if your condition had been correctly diagnosed.

In place of a medical negligence compensation calculator, we have compiled a table using guideline compensation amounts from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). Solicitors can use this document to help them value claims. 

Injury	Compensation Bracket	Details
Brain damage	£282,010 to £403,990	(A) Very severe: The affected party requires full time care. Little or no language function.
Brain damage	£219,070 to £282,010	(B) Moderately severe: The effected party is very severely disabled physically and/or cognitively.
Lung disease	£100,670 to £135,920	(A) Where the affected party is young and sustains a significant disability in conjunction with the condition potentially worsening, leading to an early death.
Lung disease	£70,030 to £97,330	Cancer will cause major pain and impairment of functionality as well as overall quality of life.
Scarring	£7,830 to £22,730	Multiple noticeable laceration scars or a single disfiguring scar.
Scarring	£2,370 to £7,830	A single noticeable scar or multiple superficial scars.
Mental anguish	£4,670	Fear of impending death or the reduction of lifespan.

 

However, these figures should only be used as guidance. This is because each medical negligence claim is unique, and the payout you receive may be different.

Could You Receive Special Damages In A Medical Negligence Claim?

You may also claim for special damages if you have sustained any financial losses due to medical negligence. For example, you might be required to attend several appointments to rectify the misdiagnosis. Any travel costs that are incurred due to this may be reimbursed through special damages. 

This head of claim could also cover: 

• Home adaptations to cope with disabilities 
• Care costs 
• Loss of earnings 

It could be useful for you to keep records of monetary harm to strengthen your chances of being reimbursed. This can be done via invoices, receipts or bank statements. 

If you would like more detail as to the cancer misdiagnosis payout you could be owed, please speak with an advisor from our team. 

Potential Evidence That Could Help You Claim For Misdiagnosed Breast Cancer

As previously mentioned, medical practitioners owe their patients a minimum standard of care. This needs to have been breached, causing avoidable harm, for you to make a successful medical negligence claim. 

You may wish to gather evidence to strengthen your claim’s chances of success. This can be done in the following ways: 

• Keep notes from medical practitioners, such as names,  location names or dates when relevant events occurred. 
• Keep a diary of symptoms and treatments as well as the impact they have on your psychological state. 
• Ask any witnesses who would be willing to provide a statement.

Lastly, we recommend you seek legal advice. An advisor from our team is available to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to offer your free legal advice. If they feel your claim is valid, they could connect you with a lawyer. 

How Could Our Panel Of No Win No Fee Solicitors Help You If You’ve Been Misdiagnosed With Cancer?

If you make a ,medical negligence claim and choose to work with a lawyer, you could work with a solicitor from our team. They may offer a No Win No Fee agreement. This might help take remove much of the financial risk associated with claiming with a solicitor that requests payments upfront. The solicitors from our panel usually represent claimants with a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), which is a kind of No Win No Fee agreement.  

Under a CFA, you won’t have to pay for the services your solicitor provides upfront or while your claim is ongoing. Moreover, if your claim is unsuccessful, you won’t have to pay for the legal services your solicitor provides. If your claim is won, a capped-by-law success fee will be subtracted from your compensation by your solicitor.

Please get in touch with a member of our team to find out whether you are eligible to be represented on this basis.

Contact Us 24/7 For Free To See If You Could Make A Medical Negligence Claim

An advisor from our team can assess your potential breast cancer misdiagnosis case to see if you are eligible to be represented by a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel. Furthermore, they could provide you with an assessment of the validity of your claim, as well as how much you could be owed. 

To get in touch: 

• Call 0113 460 1216
• Complete our contact us form
• Speak with a member of our team using the live chat

Learn More About Claiming For Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis

Here we have included some more of our own guides that might be able to assist you: 

• How to report medication errors
• Can you claim for wrongly prescribed quinine? 
• Never events compensation claims

Additionally, we have provided you with further guides that could be beneficial: 

• Cancer Research UK – Cancer Symptoms 
• General Medical Council (GMC) – Good Medical Practice 
• NHS Resolution annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022

Thank you for reading this guide on the steps you can take if you have suffered a breast cancer misdiagnosis. 

Writer Beck Pilling

Publisher Fern Smith