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Laboratory negligence occurs when technicians fail to accurately obtain test results due to unreasonable actions. This can result in misdiagnosis and failure to provide appropriate treatment. If a lab technician, doctor, or other hospital or laboratory employee acts unreasonably, it means they knowingly made mistakes (or didn’t correct mistakes) such as:

• hurrying results
• not checking for accuracy
• using inappropriate or faulty equipment
• not collecting samples accurately
• not conducting the test in an effective way
• losing test results or samples and getting patients’ results mixed up
• failing to accurately report the results to the doctor and/or patient
• not double-checking positive results that indicate disease

In legal terms, laboratories and their employees have a responsibility to take reasonable care when collecting, handling and testing patient samples.

Laboratory tests are done for hospitals, dentist offices and other healthcare providers. Laboratory negligence can sometimes be linked to dental malpractice, pediatric malpractice, plastic surgery malpractice and hospital negligence. Laboratories check patients’ blood, semen, skin, tissue, fluid, stool and other samples to test for illnesses including:

• cancer
• heart and other organ disease
• all viruses
• bacterial infections
• drug use

Almost any type of illness occurring in the human body can be tested in a laboratory setting. Returning accurate results is important for the diagnosis, care and treatment of patients. Without accurate results, patients can be left untreated, they can receive the wrong treatment, they might unknowingly infect others, and they might die.

Recent cases of laboratory negligence include:

·        A man who was told he had tuberculosis even though he was healthy. His doctor started him on tuberculosis medicine, which was costly and made him very sick.

·        A woman’s cancer went undiagnosed because of faulty testing practices. She later died even though the cancer could have been treated had it been caught earlier.

·        A woman gave birth to a baby with an illness that could have been treated had the laboratory not mixed up her sample with someone else’s.

If you or a loved one experiences laboratory negligence, contact a personal injury attorney who specializes in medical malpractice.