Medical Malpractice?

[classman625]

Good morning from the Northeast. I am 39 yoa male, diagnosd Hep C 2005. Began initial interferon ribaviron treatment in April 2006. Continued with th treatment for 9 months, responding very well, virus was undetectable, and then my health insurance was cancelled ( I was on state aid at the time, and got a part time job at 15 hours a week, and the state said thatI amde too much $).

Went for follow up blood work in Dec. 2008, and missed an appointment wth he doc to review results (at the time of the missed appoitment was working 2 jobs and about 80 hours a week) I did not hear from Doc, so I assumed (yes I know what assume means...) that the results were okay.

I did end up calling the doc in June 2009 to ask over the phone what the bloodwork results from 12/08,were (at the SUGGESTION of my wife) and the office told me that it was not good news, and that the doctor needs to see you in person to discuss the results.

I went to see the doc and found tha my viral load was near 2mil, when at its discovery, I was around 400,000. My question is that should the doc have called or madesome attempts to contact me with the news that I needed to try the treatment again, to it's completin this time around. From what I was told, if the treatment does not take its full 48 week course, the lielyhood that the virus will re-surface is much greater than if treatment was completed.

[nygirl7]

Yes  unfortunately you did cancel and while it would have been good for them to reach out and contact your or send a letter or something  - it's not something you can sue over since it was your own doing I wouldn't think.

Retreat for the full duration when you can. It is unfortunate that you had to stop early however if you had come on here then we could have told you how to get the meds so that you could have continued till the end of treatment.  That would have been more important than asking about malpractice this much later.

[jdwithhcv]

You said it yourself, your doctor had you set up an appointment to review your results.  It was your responsibility to keep that appointment.  

To have a valid medical malpractice claim you must prove 1) a departure from standard of care; 2) damage to you; 3) the damage must be caused by the departure from SOC.  From the facts you give here, your doctor did not depart from SOC.

Sorry to hear that your first tx was unsuccessful  Best of luck with your next tx.

jd

[FlGuy]

From what you write it's very obvious that it was the doctor's fault that you missed your appointment to review the results of your treatment.  If it were me, I'd sue the guy for his Lexus and every golf club he owns.  Re-treatment can be successful but there are some things you need to do.