Award-Winning Misdiagnosis Law Firm in Florida
Misdiagnosis and failure to treat are among the most common and most devastating forms of medical malpractice in Florida. Every year, patients across the state lose their chance at a cure, suffer permanent harm, or die because a physician failed to recognize what was right in front of them. In many of these cases, the diagnosis wasn’t difficult. It was simply missed.
Freedland Harwin Valori Gander represents patients and families throughout Florida who were harmed by a misdiagnosis, a delayed diagnosis, or a failure to treat a known condition. We fight for the accountability that negligent physicians and institutions rarely offer on their own.
Written and edited by our team of expert legal content writers and reviewed and approved by Daniel Harwin
- Content last updated on:
- June 29, 2026
Table of Contents
- Why Hire Freedland, Harwin, Valori, and Gander to Pursue a Misdiagnoses Lawsuit?
- Meet Our Florida Misdiagnosis Attorneys
- What Types of Misdiagnosis Cases Do We Handle?
- How Our Medical Malpractice Lawyers Can Help You Pursue Compensation
- Who Can Be Held Liable in a Failure To Diagnose Lawsuit?
- How Much Does a Misdiagnosis Lawyer Cost?
- When To Contact a Lawyer for a Misdiagnosis Claim
- Contact Our Florida Misdiagnosis Lawyers at Freedland Harwin Valori Gander
Understanding Misdiagnosis, Delayed Diagnosis, and Failure to Treat
These terms describe related but distinct failures in the diagnostic process:
- Misdiagnosis occurs when a physician identifies the wrong condition, treating the patient for something they don’t have while the actual disease goes unaddressed.
- Delayed diagnosis occurs when the correct diagnosis is eventually reached, but only after a harmful delay, allowing the condition to progress to a more advanced and less treatable stage.
- Failure to diagnose occurs when a physician fails entirely to identify a condition that should have been detected based on the patient’s symptoms, history, and available test results.
- Failure to treat occurs when a diagnosis is made correctly, but the physician then fails to prescribe appropriate treatment, refer the patient to a specialist, or follow up adequately.
Each of these failures can be the basis for a medical malpractice claim if it falls below the standard of care and causes measurable harm to the patient. The critical question is not simply whether the doctor was wrong, it’s whether a reasonably competent physician, given the same information, would have reached the correct diagnosis and provided appropriate treatment.
FHVG has over 20 years of experience to guide you in the right direction. We have recovered over $2.6 billion in damages for our clients.
A few of our successful cases include the following:
for failure to diagnose an epidural abscess, leading to paralysis
for failure to read testing results appropriately, leading to a delayed cancer diagnosis
for failure to diagnose a pre-operative EKG that led to an improper clearance for surgery and caused the decedent to have a myocardial infarction.
for failure to timely diagnose and treat a stroke that led to partial paralysis and severe aphasia.
for Failure to diagnose and timely treat a brain hemorrhage after delivery.
for failure to timely diagnose and treat a pulmonary embolism.
because a hospital and its physicians failed to timely diagnose bowel ischemia, which led to necrosis, loss of bowel, sepsis, and septic shock.
for the wrongful death of a woman who presented to the emergency room with signs and symptoms of a pulmonary embolism that was undiagnosed and caused her death.
for failure to timely diagnose and treat a post-operative infection after a total knee arthroplasty
for failure to diagnose an epidural abscess, leading to paralysis
for failure to read testing results appropriately, leading to a delayed cancer diagnosis
for failure to read testing results appropriately, leading to a delayed cancer diagnosis
for failure to read testing results appropriately, leading to a delayed cancer diagnosis
for Failure to diagnose and timely treat a brain hemorrhage after delivery.
for Failure to diagnose and timely treat a brain hemorrhage after delivery.
for Failure to diagnose and timely treat a brain hemorrhage after delivery.
for Failure to diagnose and timely treat a brain hemorrhage after delivery.
for Failure to diagnose and timely treat a brain hemorrhage after delivery.
We regularly receive client testimonials praising the representation and service we provide, including one who said:
I want to thank the whole team for everything that you all have done for me. I truly appreciate this law firm. I love y’all. I tell everyone I know this is the law firm to trust.
free consultation anytime, anywhere.
ALL FIELDS REQUIRED
- ANESTHESIA & PACU ERRORS
- BIRTH TRAUMA
- EMERGENCY ROOM MISTAKES
- FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE OR MISDIAGNOSIS – CANCER
- FAILURE OR DELAY IN DIAGNOSIS OF SEPSIS
- FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE AND TREAT GESTATIONAL DIABETES
- FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE BREAST CANCER
- FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE HEART ATTACK
- FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE OR TREAT AORTIC DISSECTION
- FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE PNEUMONIA
- FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE PULMONARY EMBOLISM
- FAILURE TO TREAT STROKE
- HOSPITAL MALPRACTICE
- INTRAVENOUS INFILTRATION
- MEDICATION ERRORS
- MEDICATION OVERDOSE
- MISDIAGNOSIS
- NEGLIGENT FETAL MONITORING
- OB/GYN ERRORS
- PLASTIC SURGERY ERRORS
- PREOPERATIVE CLEARANCE ERROR
- RADIOLOGY ERRORS
- SPINE SURGERY MISTAKES
- STILLBIRTH & MISCARRIAGE MALPRACTICE
- SURGERY CENTER ERRORS
- SURGICAL ERRORS
- TYPES OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWSUITS
CASE RESULTS
TESTIMONIALS
999 Ponce De Leon Blvd
Suite 1030
Coral Gables, FL 33134
Meet Our Florida Misdiagnosis Attorneys
What Types of Misdiagnosis Cases Do We Handle?
Misdiagnoses often occur when health care providers are negligent and fail to provide reasonably prudent care and treatment. Our experienced malpractice attorneys handle a full range of misdiagnosis cases, including those involving the following conditions:
Strokes
Strokes occur when vessels or blood clots rupture, leading to a loss of blood supply to the brain. If doctors fail to diagnose strokes, patients may suffer brain damage or die from a lack of proper treatment. Brain damage from a stroke could cause catastrophic consequences for the victim.
Cancer
Healthcare providers may misdiagnose or fail to timely diagnose cancer. These mistakes could allow the cancer to spread and worsen. A patient may also experience greater pain, suffering, and other problems depending on where the cancer spreads. That delay or misdiagnosis could also cause a worse prognosis for the patient, and they may need more expensive and invasive treatment.
Heart Attacks
There are several reasons health care workers misdiagnose or fail to diagnose heart attacks. These include not ordering the proper tests, misreading test results, and missing other symptoms. A failure to timely diagnose and treat a heart attack can lead to cardiac arrest, heart failure, or even death.
Aortic Dissection
Blunt trauma, high blood pressure, and other factors can lead to a condition called aortic dissection. This is a dangerous and sometimes deadly condition in which the inner wall of the aorta is damaged and affects the blood flow between its tissues. Negligent health care workers may miss an aortic dissection because they fail to properly identify the symptoms or perform proper x-rays, ultrasounds, or other diagnostic tests that would have identified the problem.
Pulmonary Embolism
A pulmonary embolism occurs when a lung artery is blocked, most often by blood clots. It is typically treatable if health care providers diagnose it timely and treat it correctly. Otherwise, it can be fatal. Health care providers may miss pulmonary embolisms because they fail to properly identify the symptoms, order blood tests, ultrasounds, CT scans, chest X-rays, or other diagnostic tests, or interpret the test results correctly.
Gestational Diabetes
Early diagnosis of gestational diabetes is critical to the health of mothers and babies. The condition is common and treatable when caught timely. A failure to diagnose and treat gestational diabetes can lead to preeclampsia, brachial plexus, respiratory illness, or even stillbirth.
Pneumonia
Older or immune-compromised patients are most likely to develop pneumonia. Misdiagnosis may occur in a nursing home or any other health care setting. When negligent health care workers do not recognize and treat the symptoms of pneumonia, people may experience painful coughing and headaches, confusion, and even death.
Sepsis
People with bacterial or viral infections are prone to developing sepsis, a dangerous condition. It can lead to gangrene, organ failure, amputations, surgery, and even death. If a health care provider fails to diagnose and treat the initial infection, the patient can develop sepsis. It is important to recognize the symptoms and treat the infection timely.
If you suspect your doctor or other health care provider missed a diagnosis or diagnosed the wrong condition, a lawyer for misdiagnosis can help. Our skilled attorneys will help collect the evidence you need to show that their negligence led to your harm and that you deserve compensation.
How Our Medical Malpractice Lawyers Can Help You Pursue Compensation
Pursuing compensation after a delay in diagnosis or a misdiagnosis can be a complicated and lengthy process. Throughout the process, our misdiagnosis lawyers will remain by your side every step of the way. It’s typical for your relationship with a lawyer to follow this progression:
- Consultation: First, you will meet with one of our attorneys specializing in medical malpractice. We will assess the viability of your case by gathering information about the treatment, the nature and extent of harm caused, and evidence of negligence by the health care provider.
- Establishing malpractice: To pursue a medical malpractice claim, you must prove a health care provider’s actions deviated from the standard of care and caused harm. We will work with the best medical specialists available to determine whether the provider breached this standard.
- Investigating and gathering evidence: We will conduct a thorough investigation and gather evidence to support the case, including medical records, diagnostic tests, expert testimonies, and statements from the client. We will also collect your medical records and interview witnesses.
- Pre-Suit: Once we determine your claim has merit, Florida provides a 90-day investigation period after we provide notice to the potential defendants of our intention to bring a claim.
- Filing the lawsuit: After the 90-day investigation period, we will file a lawsuit on your behalf against the health care provider or institution responsible for the misdiagnosis.
- Discovery phase: During this process, you will exchange information and evidence related to the case with other involved parties. It can include depositions, documents, and transcripts of interrogations.
- Expert witnesses: We will need medical specialists from different specialties to offer professional opinions on the standard of care. The experts will discuss how the other party deviated from that standard of care and how the misdiagnosis caused harm.
- Settlement negotiations: Before the trial, we will typically negotiate with the opposition to obtain a settlement for the compensation you deserve. If the negotiations succeed, you can avoid going to court.
- Going to trial: If we cannot negotiate a fair settlement, our skilled and experienced trial attorneys will try your case before a jury of your peers. When you hire an attorney for a potential malpractice claim, it is important that you hire someone the defense knows will take the case to trial if necessary.
- Verdict and compensation: The jury will deliver a verdict at trial. If you win, you will receive compensation for damages. These damages may include pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost wages.
- Appeals: If either party is dissatisfied with the verdict, they may choose to appeal the decision. We will advise you on the proper steps to take.
Having a skilled legal team at your disposal is critical to help you maximize your compensation. We can help you gather comprehensive medical records to substantiate your case and calculate the long-term impact of your misdiagnosis case.
Dan Harwin and the law firm are amazing. Great practitioners and litigators. Professional and courteous while advocates for their clients.
Why Misdiagnosis Happens and Why It Is Often Negligence
Medicine is not infallible, and no reasonable legal standard demands perfection from physicians. But misdiagnosis cases that rise to the level of malpractice share common characteristics, failures that go beyond honest mistake and into the territory of unreasonable conduct. These include:
- Failure to take an adequate history or review the patient’s prior medical records and risk factors
- Failure to order appropriate diagnostic tests, such as imaging, biopsies, or bloodwork that the patient’s symptoms clearly warranted
- Failure to follow up on abnormal test results, including lab values, radiology findings, or pathology reports that pointed toward a serious diagnosis
- Failure to refer to a specialist when a condition is outside the treating physician’s competence or when symptoms remain unexplained
- Premature diagnostic closure settling on a benign explanation and stopping the workup before ruling out more serious conditions
- Anchoring bias, fixating on an early impression and failing to update the diagnosis when new information doesn’t fit
- Dismissing patient concerns, particularly common in cases involving women, minority patients, and younger patients whose serious conditions are underestimated
These are not obscure failures. They are the kinds of errors that medical training is specifically designed to prevent. When a physician at a Florida hospital or clinic fails to apply basic diagnostic reasoning and a patient suffers serious harm as a result, the law provides a remedy.
Florida Law and Misdiagnosis Malpractice Claims
Misdiagnosis claims in Florida are governed by Chapter 766 of the Florida Statutes. The statute of limitations is generally two years from when the patient knew or should have known the misdiagnosis caused harm, with an absolute limit of four years in most cases. The discovery rule is particularly important in misdiagnosis cases, where patients often don’t realize negligence occurred until much later.
Florida also requires a pre-suit investigation before a lawsuit can be filed. This involves obtaining a corroborating expert opinion and serving notice on the defendant. Our attorneys manage every step of this process and ensure that your claim is built on a foundation that can withstand aggressive defense scrutiny.
FHV Legal handles misdiagnosis and failure-to-treat cases throughout Florida, including in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. We litigate in the Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the Broward County Courthouse, and courts across the state.
When To Contact a Lawyer for a Misdiagnosis Claim
Florida has a two-year statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims. You must file your lawsuit within two years of the misdiagnosis or discovery of your harm. However, you must file your lawsuit within four years of the negligence, regardless of when you discovered the harm.
There are some exceptions to the statute of limitations, such as for minors or incapacitated individuals. A court may also extend the statute of limitations for your case if your health care provider used fraud to conceal your harm. However, there is no guarantee that a judge will grant an exception.
Consult our attorneys as soon as you learn of your injuries. It takes time to investigate thoroughly to prove your doctor was negligent and did not make a reasonable mistake.
Contact Our Florida Misdiagnosis Lawyers at Freedland Harwin Valori Gander
If you have been harmed by a misdiagnosis or a failure to diagnose, you need an attorney with the legal expertise and record of success to fight for fair compensation. We recovered over $2.6 billion for our deserving clients. Call us at 954-467-6400 or complete our online form to get started on your case today with a free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Misdiagnosis & Failure to Treat
Is every misdiagnosis considered medical malpractice?
No. Medicine involves uncertainty, and not every diagnostic error constitutes malpractice. The legal standard is whether a reasonably competent physician, under the same or similar circumstances, would have made the correct diagnosis. If your condition was genuinely difficult to identify and the doctor followed a reasonable diagnostic process, a misdiagnosis may not be actionable. But when a diagnosis was missed due to inadequate workup, ignored test results, or failure to follow up, the case for negligence is much stronger.
What if I was eventually diagnosed correctly can I still sue?
Yes, if the delay caused you measurable harm. A delayed diagnosis malpractice claim focuses on the harm caused by the gap between when you should have been diagnosed and when you were. If your cancer advanced, your stroke caused more damage, or your condition required more aggressive treatment because of the delay, you may have a valid claim even if you ultimately received the correct diagnosis.
My doctor said my symptoms were vague, does that hurt my case?
Not necessarily. Vague symptoms are a real diagnostic challenge, but they don’t excuse a failure to investigate appropriately. The standard of care requires physicians to consider serious diagnoses, order relevant tests, and follow up when symptoms persist or worsen, even when the clinical picture is not immediately clear. In fact, some of the strongest misdiagnosis cases involve physicians who dismissed patients with persistent complaints without ever ordering the basic workup that would have revealed the true diagnosis.
Can I file a misdiagnosis claim if my loved one died?
Yes. When a misdiagnosis or failure to treat results in a patient’s death, surviving family members may bring a wrongful death claim under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act. This can include a spouse, children, or parents of the deceased. Recoverable damages include medical expenses, funeral costs, lost financial support, and the survivors’ grief and loss of companionship.
How long does a misdiagnosis malpractice case take?
Most cases take between one and three years from the time a claim is filed to resolution, depending on the complexity of the medical issues, the aggressiveness of the defense, and whether the case settles or goes to trial. Florida’s mandatory pre-suit process adds several months before a lawsuit can even be filed. Our attorneys work efficiently without ever compromising the thoroughness your case deserves.
