This guide explains when you could claim compensation for a misdiagnosed blood clot. To begin, we set out the duty of care that is required of medical professionals and how this could be breached.
Misdiagnosed blood clot claims guide
In addition to this, we look at the potential impact of a blood clot misdiagnosis and what evidence will help your medical negligence claim. Our guide also details how solicitors calculate compensation and what kinds of payouts you could receive.
If you wish to know more about when you could claim after a misdiagnosed blood clot, we hope that this guide helps. You can also speak directly with an advisor from our team to discuss your claim in further detail. To receive a free assessment of your case, please get in touch using one of the mathods listed below:
- Telephone us on 0161 696 9685
- Use our web form to provide details of your claim to contact us
- Chat with a team member live in our discussion window
Select A Section
- How To Claim For Medical Negligence Causing A Misdiagnosed Blood Clot
- Examples Of How A Doctor Could Have Misdiagnosed A Blood Clot
- Proving Causation In Medical Negligence Claims
- How Much Could You Claim For Medical Negligence Causing A Misdiagnosed Blood Clot?
- Find A No Win No Fee Solicitor For Your Medical Negligence Claim
- Find Out More About Claiming For Negligent Medical Care
How To Claim For Medical Negligence Causing A Misdiagnosed Blood Clot
Medical professionals have a legal duty to deliver a correct standard of care to their patients. This is known as a duty of care.
In order to claim medical negligence compensation, you should be able to illustrate the following:
- A medical professional owed you a duty of care.
- They breached this duty by providing you with substandard care.
- This led to you suffering harm that the right level of care would have prevented.
The negligence must have resulted in avoidable harm for you to have grounds to claim. If there was a breach but no harm, or if you would have experienced the same level of harm even if the breach did not occur, you will not be eligible to make a claim as this will not amount to medical negligence.
Furthermore, harm in a medical setting is sometimes necessary and unavoidable, and you’d be unable to claim if this was the case. For example, when you undergo an operation and the surgeon needs to make an incision, this is harm and may cause you pain and leave a scar. Similarly, if you’re diagnosed with cancer, you might be given treatment such as chemotherapy that makes you ill.
To learn more about your eligibility to claim for medical negligence causing a misdiagnosed blood clot, please contact our team. If you have a valid claim, we could provide you with a medical negligence solicitor.
Time Limits In Which To Claim For Medical Negligence
You generally have three years from the incident or the date you became aware (or would have been expected to be aware) of the negligence to start a claim. The latter is called the date of knowledge, and this is set out in the Limitation Act 1980.
Certain exceptions can apply to this time limit, however. If you’d like to know what these exceptions are and whether they apply to your case, speak with a member of our team today.
Examples Of How A Doctor Could Have Misdiagnosed A Blood Clot
Clotting is something that blood does to prevent excessive bleeding. However, though they are beneficial when you suffer a cut or laceration, they can be dangerous.
They can partially or completely stop the flow of blood around your body if they occur inside the veins. Furthermore, a blood clot, such as a pulmonary embolism, could break loose and travel around the body to the lungs. This can be fatal if left untreated.
Below, we have included some examples of how a blood clot misdiagnosis could occur:
- Your doctor or your GP fails to consider that you have recently been in surgery, which can increase your risk of a clot. Because of this, they dismiss your symptoms.
- If you have a history of blood clots and your doctor does not provide a correct assessment after prescribing you a combined hormonal contraceptive.
- An ultrasound is performed in a hospital but your results are mixed up with those of another patient. As a result, you’re erroneously told that you don’t have deep vein thrombosis when you do.
For more information on making a medical negligence misdiagnosis claim, please speak to our advisors.
Proving Causation In Medical Negligence Claims
Evidence can be useful when attempting to establish the causation in your medical misdiagnosis claim. To illustrate the connection between a breach of duty of care and a misdiagnosed blood clot, you could use the following:
- Hospital reports.
- Notes from an in-depth and independent medical appointment. If you work with a lawyer from our panel, this is something they could arrange locally to you.
- Doctor’s reports.
- Copies of medical records.
Additionally, the Bolam test may be utilised. This is where a panel of appropriately-trained medical professionals are asked to give their opinion on whether the standard of care that you received was acceptable. If they find that it was not, this can help to support your medical negligence claim.
For further information on the pieces of evidence that could support your claim for a misdiagnosed blood clot, please get in touch. A solicitor from our panel could help you to acquire these.
How Much Could You Claim For Medical Negligence Causing A Misdiagnosed Blood Clot?
If you receive a compensation payout for medical negligence, you will be awarded general damages. This head of claim is intended to cover the pain you have experienced because of the unnecessary harm you were caused.
Moreover, during the valuing process, legal professionals can consult the Judicial College Guidelines, as they can be useful when determining compensation for a claim.
The compensation brackets contained within the guidelines align with injuries of varying severity. We’ve included some in the table below, but you should only treat these as a guide and not a guarantee.
Compensation Guidelines
| Harm | Severity | Details | Compensation Guidelines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brain Damage | Very Severe (a) | Little language function and response to environment, if any. Full-time care is required. | £282,010 to £403,990 |
| Moderately Severe (b) | Serious disabilities causing a substantial dependence on others. A risk of associated future medical problems. | £219,070 to £282,010 | |
| Less Severe (d) | A good recovery has been made and there is a return to a normal social life and work. All functions are not restored and poor concentration and memory may persist. | £15,320 to £43,060 | |
| Chest | Serious (a) | One lung is totally removed or there is serious heart damage with persistent pain and significant scarring in the worst cases. | £100,670 to £150,110 |
| Lung | Significant (d) | Difficulties with breathing leading to the frequent use of an inhaler. Prognosis is uncertain but the effect on work and social life is significant. | £31,310 to £54,830 |
| Slight (f) | A high likelihood of a recovery within a few years that is permanent and substantial despite some slight breathlessness. | £10,640 to £20,800 |
You could also potentially claim special damages, which is the head of the claim that aims to reimburse the financial losses you suffered because of medical negligence.
For example, if you suffered a loss of earnings because the harm you suffered prevented you from attending work, you may be compensated for this. Payslips can demonstrate this monetary damage.
You could also be compensated for:
- Travel costs (for example, to and from hospital appointments)
- The cost of care
- Prescription fees
To receive a more accurate assessment of what you could receive in a successful misdiagnosed blood clot claim, please speak with a member of our team.
Find A No Win No Fee Solicitor For Your Medical Negligence Claim
If you choose to work with a solicitor during your medical negligence claim, they could potentially offer to work on a No Win No Fee basis. A popular form of this kind of agreement is a Conditional Fee Agreement.
With one of these in place, if your claim is unsuccessful, there will typically be no obligation for you to pay your solicitor for the services they have provided. There also aren’t any upfront or ongoing fees to pay to your lawyer.
Comparatively, if your claim is a success, your solicitor will take a success fee. This is a percentage that No Win No Fee solicitors take from your compensation, though the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 subjects this success fee to a legal cap.
For more guidance about making your misdiagnosed blood clot claim and the possibility of working with a No Win No Fee solicitor, please get in touch.
Talk To Our Team
If you would like to speak with an advisor about making a medical negligence claim, please don’t hesitate to reach us in the following ways:
- Call us on 0161 696 9685
- Fill out your details in our online claim form to contact us
- Use our chat window feature to start a live conversation with a member of our team
Find Out More About Claiming For Negligent Medical Care
Thank you for reading our guide on when you could make a medical negligence claim after suffering harm from a misdiagnosed blood clot.
More of our guides:
- Stroke Misdiagnosis Compensation – How To Make A Claim
- GP Negligence Claims
- Wrong Medication Negligence Claims
Useful resources:
- Blood Clots – NHS
- Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) – NHS
- Find A Doctors Record On The Medical Register – The General Medical Council
Written by EM
Edited by FS