Cancer Treatment Options Forum - July 17th, 2011 - 2 Comments
Can you sue a teen clinic over mental anguish or not providing you with the right info?
Ok so I went to a teen clinic (I’ve gone there for the past 2-3 years now) for my annual exam. About a week after I got the exam, I called to see if all of the results were back. I talked to a couple different people at the clinic, I talked to a nurse and a manager (regarding something else) and was told that my test results had come back and everything was fine.About a month later I received a letter from the clinic saying that I had abornormal cells on my cervix and that I need to ome in for a colposcopy.
1st when I called there they said that ALL of my test results had come back and I was clean. The clinic failed to tell me that apparently cell work takes 2 weeks to come back. The person I talked to should have said that not ALL of my results were back yet.
2nd I never received a single call from the clinic (which they are supposed to do first).
-When I called the clinic today to talk about the letter and not receiving any calls they said that they called my house number, once. I never received a call or a voice mail from them AND I specifically told the doctor to call my cell phone not my house phone. The nurse I spoke with also said that there wasn’t a answering machine availible, but there is one availible.
The nurse never even tried to call my cell phone…
I am obviously not happy about this considering the possibility of cervical cancer is serious and this has caused me alot of mental anguish. I thought that I was clean and was told I was, but then it took them over a month to contact me with information regarding my health, so I am very stressed about this.
I was wondering if it was possible to sue a teen clinic for not providing me with this information, lying to me about the results and causing me mental anguish?
A lawsuit would probably not be successful for a several reasons.
First of all, you need to prove the error was intentional or negligent. People are allowed to make mistakes, so there needs to be more to it before it rises to the level of negligence.
Next, you need to prove mental anguish. That means a professional opinion from a qualified doctor. You can’t just go into court complaining, it must be professionally documented.
Then, you need to prove the anguish would not have occurred if it was not for their negligence. That will be quite difficult, as it could be argued you would be upset over the incident even if you were advised promptly.
According to Google, it’s somewhat of a gray area, but I’d be happy to do more research if you want to message me. I spent about 10 minutes looking around but it’s not an easy answer. Again, feel free to message me and I hope you are successful in what you are looking for.