Q.
About a year ago, I felt pain in my knee and went to my doctor. He said that I had early-stage arthritis and prescribed me medication and told me to avoid strenuous physical activity. However, over the next few months, my knee pain got worse and when I went back to my doctor, he X-rayed my knee and said there was nothing wrong, prescribed me painkillers, gave me a steroid injection, and told me to come back in a few weeks. However, my knee pain seemed to get better for a while and then got worse again, and I ended up going to the emergency room. The emergency room doctor diagnosed that I had a cancerous tumor behind my knee, and since I didn’t have health insurance, I went straight to Korea for treatment. The doctor in Korea thought that if my condition had been diagnosed early, I could have had a simple surgery to remove the tumor. However, I ended up having to have my left leg amputated and had to go back to LA after a year of treatment in Korea. Can I sue the doctor who failed to find the cancer in my knee and misdiagnosed it as arthritis, which resulted in my leg being amputated?
A.
I feel even more sorry that you went through this avoidable pain. I also believe that the delayed diagnosis of your knee cancer may have been the cause of your leg being amputated. The problem is that since it has been over a year since you learned that your doctor misdiagnosed you, you may not be able to sue your first doctor. This is because the statute of limitations for medical malpractice starts from the time you learned of the malpractice or should have known of it, and the statute of limitations is limited to one year. In other words, when you were diagnosed with bone cancer in Korea, you knew that your first doctor had failed to diagnose you with arthritis and misdiagnosed you. That is when the one-year time limit for your case began. And since it took over a year in Korea, unfortunately, the statute of limitations seems to have run out.
Many people in the US who do not have health insurance go to Korea for medical treatment, but if you go to Korea for treatment and realize that the doctor in the US made a mistake, you should remember that you still have one year to file a lawsuit. In other words, the statute of limitations does not stop regardless of whether you are in Korea or the US. Therefore, in your case, if you received treatment in Korea, you must file a lawsuit within one year, so it is very important to consult with an attorney in the US as soon as possible.
When a medical malpractice lawsuit is filed, the state follows the statute of limitations or statute of limitations. As previously mentioned, generally, you must file your lawsuit within one year of the date you knew about the malpractice or the date you should have known about it through reasonable investigation. If the defendant is a government agency, the time limit is 180 days. And if a minor under the age of 6 is the victim of medical malpractice, the lawsuit must be filed within three years of the malpractice or before the child’s eighth birthday.
In conclusion, the most important piece of advice I can give to a client considering filing a medical malpractice lawsuit is to consult with a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible regarding their accident.
Q.
About a year ago, I felt pain in my knee and went to my doctor. He said that I had early-stage arthritis and prescribed me medication and told me to avoid strenuous physical activity. However, over the next few months, my knee pain got worse and when I went back to my doctor, he X-rayed my knee and said there was nothing wrong, prescribed me painkillers, gave me a steroid injection, and told me to come back in a few weeks. However, my knee pain seemed to get better for a while and then got worse again, and I ended up going to the emergency room. The emergency room doctor diagnosed that I had a cancerous tumor behind my knee, and since I didn’t have health insurance, I went straight to Korea for treatment. The doctor in Korea thought that if my condition had been diagnosed early, I could have had a simple surgery to remove the tumor. However, I ended up having to have my left leg amputated and had to go back to LA after a year of treatment in Korea. Can I sue the doctor who failed to find the cancer in my knee and misdiagnosed it as arthritis, which resulted in my leg being amputated?
A.
I feel even more sorry that you went through this avoidable pain. I also believe that the delayed diagnosis of your knee cancer may have been the cause of your leg being amputated. The problem is that since it has been over a year since you learned that your doctor misdiagnosed you, you may not be able to sue your first doctor. This is because the statute of limitations for medical malpractice starts from the time you learned of the malpractice or should have known of it, and the statute of limitations is limited to one year. In other words, when you were diagnosed with bone cancer in Korea, you knew that your first doctor had failed to diagnose you with arthritis and misdiagnosed you. That is when the one-year time limit for your case began. And since it took over a year in Korea, unfortunately, the statute of limitations seems to have run out. Many people in the US who do not have health insurance go to Korea for medical treatment, but if you go to Korea for treatment and realize that the doctor in the US made a mistake, you should remember that you still have one year to file a lawsuit. In other words, the statute of limitations does not stop regardless of whether you are in Korea or the US. Therefore, in your case, if you received treatment in Korea, you must file a lawsuit within one year, so it is very important to consult with an attorney in the US as soon as possible. When a medical malpractice lawsuit is filed, the state follows the statute of limitations or statute of limitations. As previously mentioned, generally, you must file your lawsuit within one year of the date you knew about the malpractice or the date you should have known about it through reasonable investigation. If the defendant is a government agency, the time limit is 180 days. And if a minor under the age of 6 is the victim of medical malpractice, the lawsuit must be filed within three years of the malpractice or before the child’s eighth birthday. In conclusion, the most important piece of advice I can give to a client considering filing a medical malpractice lawsuit is to consult with a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible regarding their accident.