Failure to Diagnose Meningitis

Failure to diagnose lawsuits make up a large portion of medical malpractice lawsuits. But a doctor who fails to diagnose an ailment in a patient can only be found guilty of medical malpractice if his or her actions resulted in serious injury or death to a patient. Thus the majority of failure to diagnose medical malpractice lawsuits involve diseases and disorder that are very severe and fast moving. One common disease in these cases is meningitis.

Meningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. There are also two forms of meningitis-viral meningitis and bacterial meningitis. Most medical malpractice lawsuits involve bacterial meningitis as it is typically a significantly more severe illness which requires intense and fast treatment to keep the patient from suffering from permanent injury or death.

The only way to be completely sure of the presence of meningitis is by having a doctor perform a spinal tap in order to analyze the cerebrospinal fluid. It is vital that doctors are aware of all of the common signs and symptoms of meningitis and that if any of those symptoms are present in a patient that the doctor takes all the necessary steps to completely rule out the possibility of this disease.

The Common Signs and Symptoms of Meningitis

It is a good idea to have an idea about the various signs and symptoms of serious disorder in order to be aware of its possible presence in yourself or others. Common signs of meningitis include:

• Severe headache

• Nuchal rigidity-this is the inability to flex the neck forward

• High fever

• Altered mental status

• Photophobia-the inability to tolerate bright light

• Phonophobia-the inability to tolerate loud noises

Knowledge is power when it comes to protecting yourself from medical malpractice.

To find out more about failure to diagnose and meningitis, visit the website of the Washington medical malpractice lawyers at Fuller & Fuller.

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James Witherspoon

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