Reading, PA Misdiagnosis Lawyers

Failure to Diagnose Cancer, Misdiagnosis of Stroke or Heart Attack, & Botched Test Results

A missed or incorrect diagnosis isn’t just a medical setback. When a physician’s failure to diagnose a serious condition falls below the accepted medical standard of care, the consequences can be permanent disability or death. Liever, Hyman & Potter has been representing misdiagnosis victims and their families throughout Berks County since 1959, and our attorneys have the documented results to back it, including a $12.75 million settlement for failure to diagnose brain disease. If you’re evaluating your options after a missed or delayed diagnosis, we’d like to hear what happened.

Our attorneys have developed a strong medical background through years of study and trial work. When a case demands in-depth medical knowledge, we consult board-certified physicians, often from major medical university settings, and we search nationally for doctors uniquely qualified to support the specific claim.

Contact Liever, Hyman & Potter for a free consultation about your misdiagnosis case. Call us at (610) 885-1991 or reach out online. There’s no fee unless we recover for you.

When a Diagnostic Error Becomes Medical Malpractice

Diagnostic errors take several distinct forms, and recognizing which one applies to your situation is the first step toward understanding whether you have a claim. Common failures include:

• Missed diagnosis: A serious illness goes entirely unidentified, and no treatment is prescribed
• Wrong diagnosis: You’re told you have a condition you don’t have, delaying correct treatment
• Delayed diagnosis: The correct diagnosis arrives too late for optimal treatment
• Failure to order tests: An EKG or cardiac enzyme blood test is skipped, sending a heart attack patient home. A CT scan isn’t ordered when neurological red flags are present, causing a stroke patient to miss the critical window for clot-busting medication
• Misread lab or imaging results: A radiologist misses a finding, or a suspicious lesion is dismissed without follow-up
• Failure to act on abnormal results: Abnormal lab work is received but never communicated to the patient or acted upon
• Emergency room negligence: Time-sensitive conditions, including strokes, frequently misdiagnosed as migraines, vertigo, or intoxication, go untreated during the critical intervention window
• Communication failures: Critical test results or patient history are lost between physicians, nurses, and specialists on a care team
• Laboratory errors: Faulty equipment or human error produces an incorrect result even when the physician follows protocol

Cancer misdiagnosis often follows a particularly damaging pattern: a radiologist overlooks a finding on imaging, a dermatologist dismisses a suspicious lesion, or a primary care physician never follows up on abnormal lab results. Each delay can allow disease to advance from a treatable stage to a terminal one.

What You Must Prove in a Pennsylvania Misdiagnosis Claim

Not every diagnostic error rises to the level of medical malpractice. A physician may follow every appropriate step and still reach an incorrect diagnosis in a rare or complex case without incurring liability. To establish a claim, a patient must show three things: 

1. A doctor-patient relationship existed, creating a legal duty of care; 
2. The physician’s conduct fell below the accepted medical standard of care, meaning a reasonably competent physician in the same specialty would have acted differently; and 
3. That breach directly caused measurable harm.

The standard of care includes taking a complete patient history, ordering appropriate diagnostic tests such as blood work and imaging, correctly interpreting results, and following up on abnormal findings. Expert medical testimony is typically required to establish what the standard demanded and where the defendant fell short.

Pennsylvania law also imposes a procedural requirement: a Certificate of Merit, a signed statement from a licensed physician in the same or similar specialty affirming that the care provided was likely negligent and caused harm, must be filed within 60 days of the lawsuit. Failure to file can result in dismissal of the case regardless of its underlying merit.

Pennsylvania’s Filing Deadlines for Misdiagnosis Cases

Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims is two years, governed by 42 Pa. C.S. § 5524. In misdiagnosis cases, that two-year clock doesn’t always start on the date of the error. The discovery rule allows the deadline to begin from the date you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that a medical error caused your harm. This distinction matters significantly in failure-to-diagnose cases where the correct diagnosis may not arrive until months or years after the original negligence.

Pennsylvania previously imposed a seven-year statute of repose that would have barred claims filed more than seven years after the date of the alleged malpractice. In 2019, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down that rule as unconstitutional in Yanakos v. UPMC, holding that it violated the Pennsylvania Constitution’s guarantee of access to the courts. As a result, there’s no longer a fixed outer time limit barring medical malpractice claims in Pennsylvania, and the discovery rule governs when the filing clock begins. For minors, the two-year deadline doesn’t begin until the child turns 18, giving a minor until their 20th birthday to file. When a patient dies as a result of a misdiagnosis, the two-year deadline for wrongful death and survival actions runs from the date of death.

Because the start date is highly fact-specific, and defense counsel may argue the clock started earlier than you believe, early consultation with a misdiagnosis lawyer in Reading, PA is important. All deadlines stated here are general rules subject to the specific facts of each case.

Why Misdiagnosis Victims Turn to Liever, Hyman & Potter

Our documented results in misdiagnosis cases speak directly to what this work requires. The $12.75 million settlement we recovered for failure to diagnose brain disease reflects our experience pursuing high-value diagnostic error claims. In a single three-year period, our attorneys recovered more than 500 awards and settlements, including numerous million-dollar and multi-million-dollar results. Since 1959, we’ve won thousands of awards and settlements for victims and their families, more than any other firm located in the Berks and Schuylkill County area.

All four of our attorneys handle only wrongful injury and death claims. No real estate closings, no business contracts: every hour billed and every argument made is on behalf of someone who was hurt through no fault of their own. Combined, our attorneys have devoted virtually 115-plus years of practice to that single purpose.

Lead attorney John R. Badal was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1978 and to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991, and has devoted his entire career to representing wrongful injury victims. He holds national recognition as a member of both the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, memberships tied to documented results at those dollar thresholds. Within the legal community, Liever, Hyman & Potter is known as “The Lawyers’ Lawyers” because a significant portion of our clients come to us through referrals from other law firms, former clients, and community members who know our record.

Start Your Free Consultation Today

If you believe a missed or incorrect diagnosis harmed you or a family member, contact Liever, Hyman & Potter as soon as possible. One of our experienced lawyers can be immediately available to discuss your case, guide you through the process, and deal directly with the doctors, hospital, and insurance companies. We represent misdiagnosis victims throughout Berks County, and there’s no obligation to tell us what happened.

You’ll pay us nothing - not a cent in fees, and not a cent in case expenses we advance on your behalf - until we recover money for you. Our contingent fee is based on a percentage of the award or settlement and will be clearly defined in the initial agreement to represent you. Unlike many other law firms, our agreement states that you won’t have to repay any expenses we’ve advanced on your behalf unless we recover money for you. 

Call (610) 885-1991 to speak with a misdiagnosis lawyer in Reading, PA at no cost.