Parents place immense trust in the healthcare providers who treat their children. When a medical provider breaks your trust by misdiagnosing a condition in your child, the consequences can be unimaginable. You have legal options, but you’ll need an experienced pediatric misdiagnosis lawyer to protect your rights and fight for the accountability your family deserves.
The team at Eisenberg Winkler Jeck Schwartz Schoenhaus & Sherry, P.C. proudly stands up for children harmed by medical negligence. We offer compassion, understanding, and unwavering advocacy to you and your family during this difficult time. Contact us today to learn more.
How Our Experienced Philadelphia Pediatric Misdiagnosis Lawyer Can Help You
When your child suffers a lifelong disability due to misdiagnosis, you need a skilled, compassionate, relentless legal advocate to fight for the justice you and your family deserve. Here’s how the child medical malpractice attorneys at Eisenberg Winkler Jeck Schwartz Schoenhaus & Sherry, P.C. can help:
- Offering a free, no-obligation consultation to determine your legal options
- Conducting a thorough investigation of medical records and hospital protocols
- Determining whether the pediatrician or other health care provider failed to order appropriate tests
- Proving how an earlier diagnosis would have changed the outcome in your child’s condition
- Consulting pediatric and other experts to identify errors and causation
- Calculating the lifetime costs of care and lost earning capacity
- Advocating aggressively for you and your child’s best interests
Our firm has recovered over $4 billion on behalf of our clients, and we stand ready to fight for the financial stability and full and complete justice your family deserves. We offer skilled legal guidance, tenacious advocacy, compassion, and understanding as you face this difficult time in your lives. As these satisfied clients wrote of their experience:
“More than four years ago, my life and the life of my family were changed. … Then a good family friend brought me to your firm. …Because of you all, I was given a voice and it was heard loud and clear. … We are now able to put this behind us and move forward. So Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!” – Danaka and Mark A.
The Standard of Pediatric Care in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania law requires physicians to provide care that meets accepted medical standards. In pediatric cases, that standard is even higher.
Under Pennsylvania’s Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act, a physician must exercise the skill, knowledge, and care that a reasonable pediatrician would use under similar circumstances. In practical terms, a reasonable pediatrician in Philadelphia must:
- Listen carefully to parents’ concerns
- Perform appropriate examinations
- Order timely diagnostic tests
- Recognize warning signs of serious illness
- Refer to specialists when symptoms fall outside their expertise
When a medical malpractice case arises, the court will evaluate a pediatrician’s conduct based on what a competent physician would do in a similar situation. If a doctor ignores clear symptoms or delays critical testing that they should have identified as necessary, their conduct may violate the standard of care.
Higher Standard for Non-Verbal Infants and Toddlers
Infants and toddlers may not be able to describe pain or other symptoms. They often rely on adults to interpret signs of medical issues and act accordingly. This raises the standard of care for pediatricians treating them.
When treating children, pediatricians must:
- Pay close attention to behavioral changes
- Respond to persistent fever or inconsolable crying
- Recognize feeding difficulties and abnormal vital signs
- Act quickly when symptoms suggest infection or metabolic stress
A reasonable pediatrician understands that they must take great care to identify symptoms in a child who can’t describe them clearly.
The Long-Term Consequences of Medical Misdiagnosis
A pediatric misdiagnosis can trigger a chain reaction that begins as a delayed test or overlooked symptom and can result in lifelong disability. Potential consequences of medical misdiagnosis include:
- Physical Health Complications – Delayed treatment can cause hearing or vision loss, mobility impairments, seizure disorders, organ failure, brain damage, or even death. The severity of these complications can range from mild to permanent damage. In conditions like cerebral palsy, difficulty walking and muscle stiffness are common symptoms, sometimes requiring assistive devices to support mobility and independence.
- Developmental Delays – A missed or delayed diagnosis during a child’s critical window for brain development can have lifelong effects on a child’s development, potentially causing permanent physical or neurological damage. Many parents face serious consequences when a child’s diagnosis is missed or delayed, including speech and language delays, cognitive impairments, learning disabilities, and motor skill deficits.
- Emotional and Psychological Effects – Pediatric misdiagnosis often results in significant emotional trauma, including feelings of guilt, anger, and fear for both the child and their family. Medical trauma can cause children to struggle mentally and emotionally, and cause intense stress to parents who may also face depression and caregiver burnout.
- Financial Strain on Families – The financial burden can include high medical bills, lost income from parents taking time off work, and the costs of lifelong care. Medical negligence can drain families financially, with repeated hospitalizations, specialized therapies, adaptive equipment, home modifications, and other aspects of care reaching millions of dollars.
A delayed diagnosis can have ripple effects that impact every corner of a family’s life. Lifelong care may be required for children with permanent disabilities, placing ongoing emotional and financial strain on many parents and their families.
Common Misdiagnoses That Cause Permanent Disability
Certain pediatric conditions require immediate action, and delays can lead to devastating consequences. Some commonly misdiagnosed conditions that our Philadelphia pediatric medical negligence lawyers see include:
Bacterial Meningitis
Bacterial meningitis demands urgent diagnosis and antibiotic treatment. If a pediatrician mistakes symptoms for a viral illness and sends a child home, the infection can cause brain swelling, hearing loss, cognitive impairment, or death within hours.
Appendicitis
Children often present atypical symptoms of appendicitis. A missed diagnosis can result in rupture, widespread infection, and lifelong complications. Prompt imaging and surgery can prevent catastrophic harm, even death.
Neonatal Hypoglycemia
Newborns with low blood sugar require immediate monitoring and intervention. Untreated neonatal hypoglycemia can cause permanent brain injury.
Common Causes of Pediatric Misdiagnosis
Pediatric misdiagnosis often stems from a combination of medical errors, incomplete medical histories, and insufficient physical examinations. When a healthcare provider fails to deliver an accurate diagnosis—whether by misinterpreting symptoms, overlooking vital information, or neglecting to order essential tests, the consequences can be devastating. Such lapses can lead to wrong treatment, delayed treatment, or, in some cases, no treatment at all.
Medication errors are a significant source of medical malpractice in pediatric care. Administering the wrong medication or an incorrect dosage can have severe consequences, including permanent brain damage, hearing loss, or even death. These errors may result from miscommunication among medical staff, unclear labeling, or inadequate monitoring of the child’s response to medication. Because children’s bodies process medications differently from adults, healthcare providers must carefully consider factors such as age, weight, and medical history before prescribing or administering any drug.
Developmental Delays and Medical Misdiagnosis
Developmental delays are a common and often tragic outcome when a child’s medical condition is misdiagnosed or improperly treated. If a healthcare provider fails to recognize or accurately diagnose a condition, the resulting delayed treatment can significantly impact a child’s development. For example, children with congenital heart defects require prompt and precise intervention to avoid long-term consequences. When these conditions are missed or misdiagnosed, children may experience delays in speech, language, and motor skills, sometimes requiring ongoing speech therapy and other interventions.
Pennsylvania’s Statute of Limitations & The “Minor’s Tolling” Rule
Pennsylvania law sets strict deadlines for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, lawsuits involving minors follow different rules from a standard malpractice suit.
In Pennsylvania, you typically have two years to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. For minors, the state pauses, or “tolls,” that deadline until the child’s 18th birthday. From there, they have until their 20th birthday to file a lawsuit.
Parents seeking reimbursement for out-of-pocket medical expenses have the standard two-year window for filing a lawsuit. That window begins from the date of the negligent act or the date when you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the injury.
Contact a Philadelphia Pediatric Medical Malpractice Lawyer for Legal Help
If your child was misdiagnosed and it caused a lifelong disability, the team at Eisenberg Winkler Jeck Schwartz Schoenhaus & Sherry, P.C.can help. We will investigate the incident to uncover proof of medical negligence and then fight for the accountability and compensation you deserve. Contact us today for your free consultation.
BUSINESS INFORMATION
Eisenberg Winkler Jeck Schwartz Schoenhaus & Sherry, P.C.
1634 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA, 19103
Phone: (215) 585-2814
Email: info@erlegal.com
