Brain Damage due to Stroke Misdiagnosis

Posted on August 26, 2009

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in this country and a major cause of disability nationwide. A stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery or a blood vessel ruptures, interrupting the blood flow to the brain, causing brain cells to die and brain damage to occur.

When brain cells die, activities controlled by that area of the brain are lost. These include speech, memory, and motor skills. How a stroke affects you depends on where the stroke occurs in the brain and how much damage has occurred.

The failure to accurately diagnose a stroke is a form of medical malpractice that can have severe consequences. Once a stroke has occurred, timely treatment can stop progressive damage from happening, and in some cases, reverse the damage that has occurred to some extent. Undiagnosed or misdiagnosed stroke means a delay in treatment or no treatment and the resulting brain cell death can mean permanent brain injury or death.

If you or a loved one has brain damage due to a stroke misdiagnosis, you may be entitled to financial compensation for long-term care expenses, pain and suffering, loss of wages, and medical bills. In cases where a death occurred due to a stroke misdiagnosis, the family of the victim may even be entitled to funeral and burial expenses, in addition to the above forms of compensation.

Please contact New Jersey and metropolitan Philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys Michael L. Weiss and Robert E. Paarz of Weiss & Paarz, P.C. if you believe you or someone you care about was the victim of a misdiagnosed stroke.