The Sad Truth about Misdiagnosis’s in the Judicial System

Last week in class, we heard on the radio a story that took place in 1994 about a woman who was misdiagnosed HIV positive. She lived her life for 9 years thinking that she had HIV, when in fact, she was perfectly healthy. Because of this misdiagnosis, the woman had her daughter taken from her because she was not able to take care of her child and herself. In addition to finding out she had HIV, she had episodes of over drinking and ending up in prison for DUI’s. Furthermore, this woman’s family abandoned her, because they believed her HIV was contagious like any common cold. After retaking a HIV test nine years later, the woman discovered that she had never had HIV. After four years of pursuing justice from this misdiagnosis, the woman was only able to receive 2.5 million dollars. As much as this is a large amount of money, imagine what it is like to lose your family, friends, and your own child because of a misdiagnosis and the only compensation is 2.5 million dollars. There needs to be more justice.
I think that when people are misdiagnosed, they have the right to sue doctors, or whoever was responsible for the misdiagnosis, for a significant amount of money to the damages caused to the victim. I am not saying that someone who was misdiagnosed with the flu, when he/she actually had an ear infection, should be allowed to sue for millions of dollars. However, there are millions of misdiagnosed cases per year that can and have had fatal results. Many of these cases end without any imbursement.
A friend of mine was misdiagnosed with crone’s disease, and he was being treated with medication that should not have been mixed with the actual disease that the doctors missed and had found 10 years later. However, since the doctors claim that it was not their fault for the misdiagnosis, my friend's lawyer had nothing to sue against, and, therefore, he is still paying for his old medication and operations, while he is now paying for his new medication. There should be some help with all the expensive payments he has been enduring, however, his insurance, lawyers, or doctors cannot help him.
This case of the woman being misdiagnosed HIV positive is just one of the many medical misdiagnosis cases that have happened throughout the years. Two and half million dollars may cover a lot of the medical payments, however, does it seem fair that for the 9 years of misdiagnosis (losing her daughter, and affiliation with her family) and the four years in court, that two million dollars is a rational payment? The amount of money the woman deserves should be over 4 million dollars, however, even that much money could never suffice the amount of pain and suffering the woman endured.
Court systems and doctors need to come up with a way to help prevent so many misdiagnoses from occurring each year, and establishing a just payment for the mental and physical suffering people undergo every day because of a misdiagnosis.