Failure to Diagnose Internal Bleeding

We rely on our doctors and other healthcare professionals to live up to the standards of care accepted by the medical community, including the duty to accurately assess, diagnose, and treat a life-threatening medical condition like internal bleeding. According to research by the AARP, internal bleeding is one of the top five misdiagnosed medical conditions. Internal bleeding often mimics other conditions with similar symptoms, including lightheadedness, low blood pressure, and weakness.

If you or a loved one suffered harm due to a delayed or missed diagnosis, a trusted Arizona medical malpractice lawyer can help you understand your rights and pursue the compensation you deserve. Contact Knapp & Roberts today at (480) 991-7677 or fill out our online form for a free consultation.

What Is Internal Bleeding?

Bleeding occurs when an injury causes blood to escape from the circulatory system. Typical bleeding occurs from an injury on the body’s surface structures, such as skin, fat, and muscles, with the blood visibly exiting the body through the open wound. Internal bleeding occurs when an injury or medical condition causes blood to escape from blood vessels inside the body without a surface wound, causing the blood to seep into body cavities.

Internal bleeding becomes life-threatening when the body loses significant blood volume from the circulatory system, resulting in loss of oxygenation to the brain and other body parts.

What Are the Most Common Causes of Internal Bleeding?

Internal bleeding can arise from medical conditions, surgeries, or accidental injuries. The most common causes of internal bleeding include the following:

• Physical trauma from car accidents, falls, or acts of violence
• The perforation of a blood vessel during a surgical procedure
• Aneurism rupture
• Blood-thinning medications
• Hemophelia
• Von Willebrand disease
• Penetrating wounds from gunshots, punctures, or stabbings
• Ruptured spleen or liver
• Gastrointestinal conditions such as ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, esophageal varices (enlargement of blood vessels in the esophagus)
• Ectopic pregnancy rupture
• Chronic high blood pressure
• Endometriosis
• Embolism
• Stroke
• Retained surgical items

Internal bleeding is not only a life-threatening emergency, it may also be the symptom of a serious underlying medical condition. Medical professionals have a legal duty of care to their patients that includes the accurate, timely diagnosis of internal bleeding and appropriate emergency treatment. When a doctor fails to uphold this standard of care and the result is injury, worsened medical condition, or death, the doctor or medical facility is liable for the damages to the victim or their closest surviving family member.

What Are the Signs of Internal Bleeding?

Unlike external bleeding, it’s not possible to see internal bleeding without diagnostic imaging. Instead, doctors and other medical providers must carefully monitor hospitalized patients at risk of developing internal bleeding and accurately assess those who check into emergency departments with internal bleeding. Common signs of internal bleeding include the following:

• A sudden drop in blood pressure
• Dizziness
• Weakness
• Fainting
• Shock
• Numbness
• Problems with vision
• Severe headache
• Abdominal pain
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Dark or bloody stool
• Bloating or distension in the abdomen

Bruising is also a form of internal bleeding, but in most cases, bruising occurs just below the skin’s surface and does not indicate serious internal bleeding.

Types of Internal Bleeding

Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose internal bleeding commonly occurs due to symptoms that resemble other medical conditions or injuries in various parts of the body. This is partly because the circulatory system runs throughout the entire body, and the internal bleeding may occur in various portions of the body, including the following common types:

• Abdominal bleeding
• Hemothorax, or bleeding around the lungs
• Intercranial hemorrhage, or brain bleeding
• Cardiac tamponade and hemopericardium (bleeding around the heart)
• Digestive tract bleeding, including in the esophagus, stomach, or intestines
• Pelvis
• Spinal canal
• Bleeding within the muscles, tendons, and joints

Internal bleeding is one of the most serious adverse outcomes of physical trauma.

Causes of the Failure to Diagnose Internal Bleeding

Mild internal bleeding may stop on its own, but when the bleeding is prolonged or internal bleeding is severe, it leads to organ failure, including brain damage. Death may follow if the problem remains uncorrected by surgery. Unfortunately, when a doctor fails to diagnose internal bleeding, the result can be long-term medical complications, disability, or death.

The most common causes of failure to diagnose internal bleeding include the following:

• Failure to obtain a complete medical history
• Failure to accurately assess a patient’s medical status during a physical examination
• Neglecting to order appropriate diagnostic tests
• Improper performance of diagnostic tests
• Incorrect interpretation of diagnostic test results

Delayed diagnosis of, or the failure to diagnose internal bleeding, causes a worse medical outcome or death.

Proving Liability for the Failure to Diagnose Internal Bleeding

It often takes an experienced medical malpractice attorney to perform a thorough investigation into all aspects of a malpractice case to pinpoint the negligence that occurred, identify the correct liable party, and file a compelling claim for damages against the appropriate insurance company. 

In some cases, the doctor is directly liable for their patient’s damages if they aren’t a hospital employee. A hospital or medical facility may be liable if it directly employed the doctor. In other cases, a clinician could be liable if they failed to perform a diagnostic test appropriately.

After identifying the liable party, proving liability requires showing the following:

• A doctor/patient relationship existed at the time the malpractice occurred
• The doctor or medical provider owed a duty of care to treat the patient at the accepted medical standards
• They breached this duty of care through negligence
• Their negligent breach of duty directly caused injury or death
• The injury victim or their family members suffered damages from the injury

If a doctor’s failure to diagnose internal bleeding causes fatal injury, close family members can recover compensation through a medical malpractice wrongful death lawsuit.

What Damages Can I Recover In a Medical Malpractice Claim for Failure to Diagnose Internal Bleeding?

Injuries and worsened medical conditions due to medical malpractice have many adverse consequences for victims and their families. These consequences are the “damages” in a medical malpractice claim. Common damages include the following:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Past and future income loss
• Diminished future earning capacity due to disability or impairment
• Compensation for pain and suffering
• Wrongful death benefits for a family member

Wrongful death compensation often includes funeral costs, the decedent’s lost wages for the number of earning years they had left to them had they not died, and compensation for grief and anguish.

How Can an Arizona Medical Malpractice Attorney Help My Case?

Internal bleeding itself is not medical malpractice unless it’s directly caused by a doctor’s error, but a doctor’s failure to diagnose internal bleeding is malpractice. Proving medical malpractice in Arizona requires an experienced investigation with access to the best medical experts. Call the Arizona medical malpractice lawyers at Knapp & Roberts for assertive legal action and a results-oriented approach to maximize your chances of a successful claim.