A Test Result No One Told You About: When a Delayed Diagnosis Can Be Malpractice in Pennsylvania

Attorney Answer

It may be, but the biopsy decides most of it. A provider that learns of an abnormal result and does not tell the patient can be negligent, but a malpractice claim also needs harm that the failure caused. If the mass is benign, or the months of delay did not change your wife's diagnosis or treatment, there is likely nothing to recover, even if the failure to call was careless. If it is malignant and the delay made her outlook or her treatment worse, a claim may exist. The claim would be hers, it needs a medical expert's support, and the deadline is two years.

A result no one passed on. Pennsylvania courts have upheld a malpractice verdict on facts like these. In Sutch v. Roxborough Memorial Hospital, 151 A.3d 241 (Pa. Super. 2016), a physician received a radiologist's reports of a suspicious nodule and never told the patient, who learned much later of advanced cancer; the Superior Court upheld the verdict, which rested on expert testimony about what the physician should have done. That is not a rule that every failure to pass on a result is malpractice. It shows the kind of claim that can succeed with a medical expert's support.

Harm and cause. Where a provider's negligence increased the risk of a harm that then actually happened, Pennsylvania lets the jury decide whether that increased risk was a substantial factor in causing it; the patient does not have to prove that proper care would certainly have prevented it. That is the rule of Hamil v. Bashline, 481 Pa. 256, 392 A.2d 1280 (1978). The harm has to have happened, which is why the biopsy result comes first.

A medical expert, and the deadline. A malpractice claim needs a medical expert's support before it can go forward. The deadline is 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524:

The following actions and proceedings must be commenced within two years:

(2) An action to recover damages for injuries to the person or for the death of an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect or unlawful violence or negligence of another.

When the two years start running for an injury that was not discovered right away is a question a lawyer should answer for your wife's dates.

What you can do

1. Put your wife's health first: get the biopsy and any follow-up it calls for without delay.

2. Download or print the chart entries now: the MRI report, the second reading, the follow-up note and their dates, and any portal messages.

3. Write down a timeline of the appointments and calls, with dates, while you both remember them.

4. Talk to a Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyer once the biopsy result is known, or sooner if the result is concerning.

5. Even if you are handling this yourself, you would be best served by a brief phone consultation with a local Pennsylvania attorney before you act. Most lawyers offer a short initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — and on how your court actually handles this — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. A malpractice lawsuit must be filed within two years under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524(2). A lawyer can tell you when that period starts in your wife's situation.