When you go to the doctor for a radiological procedure like an X-ray, you are seeking answers. Naturally, you are hoping that your X-rays will help the doctor to determine your issues and fix your health complication in order to eliminate pain and help you recover. People get X-rays whenever they suspect that they broke a bone or have sprained an ankle or wrist. There are a variety of reasons to get an X-ray, but the procedure is only helpful if your physician is willing to read the results carefully. X-rays, MRIs, mammograms, and ultrasounds save people’s lives by pointing out tumors, broken bones, and internal bleeding among other things.

Once these injuries or illnesses are noted, a doctor should be able to set about creating diagnosis and helping the patient to get onto the road to recovery with surgeries, resetting bones, or applying casts or medications. Yet when a doctor misreads an X-ray, it can create intense complications. Commonly, doctors will fail to correctly study an x-ray, MRI, ultrasound, CT or CAT scan, or mammogram. This means that the physician may fail to note severe and serious issues, and delay diagnosis. When a person is sent home without the proper treatment or medication, a small issue can develop into a terrible, life-threatening complication. Infections can fester, tumors can grow, or bones can continue to move from their natural placement.

Recently, a lawyer in Chicago was able to settle a radiology error case for $3.6 million on behalf of the family of a 29-year-old man. This patient went to the doctor with concern about a lump on his body, and was given an X-ray. The doctor briefly glanced at the films, and then declared that the young man was perfectly fine. He eventually died from the cancerous tumor because the medical team had not caught the mass soon enough. In another devastating incident, a 13-year-old girl was left a paraplegic when the doctor’s failed to recognize the abnormalities in her X-rays.

The teen was developing a debilitating illness, and went to the doctor in the early stages to see if they could help to fix the pain in her lower back. After her X-rays were taken, the doctors announced that she was fine and should just make sure to take a pain reliever for her lower back troubles. Eventually, the teen went back to the doctor and a horrible sickness was discovered ravaging her body. She ended up a paraplegic because the doctor’s discovered the sickness too late. The young woman was granted $7.6 million in damages, but will never regain the use of her legs. $1.2 million of the young woman’s damages were merely from the pain and suffering she has had to deal with since losing use of her legs at such a young age.

In other cases, failure to read X-rays correctly has resulted in a delayed diagnosis of cancer, breast cancer or meningitis. Recently, a U.S. woman was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, only to find out that her doctor had misread several of her mammograms in previous years. Had the physicians been more careful, they would have discovered her cancer at an earlier stage and been able to save her pain and suffering during her sickness. Because of the delay in diagnosis, this woman had to undergo a surgery to remove her breast and was forced to submit to rounds of chemotherapy to get rid of the cancer. The woman was able to receive $1.5 million in damages from her doctor for the devastating mistake. If your radiological scans were misread, leading to a misdiagnosis, then talk to a medical malpractice attorney right away to get representation and seek the damages that you deserve.