[commishh]

Twenty years ago, my son's ophthamologist failed to diagnose Coates Disease. Consequently,he has no vision in his left eye. My husband and I tried to sue the doctor when we found out two years later. Of course, doctors rarely testify against one another and our attorneys could get no other ophthamologist to appear in court.

Does my son have a 'right to sue'?

[JudyKayTee]

What State?

When you said you "tried" to sue before, what did that involve? You cannot sue twice for the same issue.

In a case like this you need to speak to a medical malpractice Attorney to sort out if there was an error and, if so, exactly what a prudent Physician would have done.

[stevetcg]

There may also be a SOL at work here.

[JudyKayTee]

Let's see - you're suing (or attempting to sue) a variety of people for a variety of reasons. https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/real-e...l#post1178055; https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/small-...l#post1165970; https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/real-e...l#post1072757; https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/corpor...ml#post1165952.

When asked to furnish additional information in order to assist you, you drop from sight and move to another thread.

I would suggest that the moderators combine all your threads and that you put one good Attorney on retainer.

[commishh]

JUDYKAYTEE-

By tried I mean two attorneys literally turned us down. Both spouted the same thing--getting an 'expert' in the field to testify was next to nill. We live in New Jersey.
Our son was seen by the state;s leading Children's Ophthalmologist. He was approached re; the lawsuit but refused to appear.

[JudyKayTee]

Well, I would assume that situation is still the same. You need to be able to locate and afford a specialist who will contradict the original Physician.

I don't see that that has changed. The quality and experience of the Attorney matters little if there isn't enough evidence to bring a lawsuit in the first place.

[ScottGem]

Failure to diagnose may not be malpractice. It depends on how obvious the symptoms and diagnois are. For example, if someone came into a hospital ER with a comnpound fracture of the arm poking through his skin and the doctor failed to diagnose that, I would say that's a pretty clear indication of malpractice. On the other hand, I know nothing about Coates disease, or its symptoms so I can't say whether it should have been diagnosed or not.

I will relate my own experience since it pertains. I was born a blue baby, due to incompatibility of the RH factor with my mother. At the time I was born the issue of RH incompatibility was just becoming known. Thanks to a doctor and nurse who were up on the latest science, the issue was diagnosed and I was given an exchange transfusion, otherwise I wouldn't be here to be writing this. However, if an exchnage transfusion had not been know to help the condition, there would have been no malpractice because it was a new technique.

This could be why two attorneys told you a malpractice suit was a waste of time.