For a plaintiff to successfully litigate a medical malpractice lawsuit against a physician, the plaintiff must prove not only that the physician owed the patient the duty to conform to the standard of care, that the physician was negligent, and that the patient sustained an injury, but also that the physician's alleged act of negligence caused the patient's injury. The connection between the act of negligence and the injury sustained by the patient, known legally as proximate cause, is in most cases easy to prove. If the radiologist has failed to interpret a radiologic study correctly and a diagnosis of a serious illness has been delayed, or the incorrect treatment has been administered as a result of that misdiagnosis, proximate cause will almost certainly exist. If the patient has sustained a complication as a result of an interventional procedure conducted by a radiologist, proximate cause will also almost certainly exist. The law recognizes that more than one codefendant physician may contribute to an injury incurred by a patient, and the law will therefore hold each codefendant participating in the injured patient's medical care similarly liable. In cases of alleged radiologic misdiagnosis, the fact that the misdiagnosis occurred may result in a finding that the misdiagnosis proximately caused the patient's injury, even though other physicians were more directly involved in the patient's alleged mismanagement. Proximate cause means a cause that, in natural or probable sequence, produced the injury complained of by the patient. It need not be the only cause, the major cause, or the last or nearest cause. As illustrated by the cases discussed in this article, the existence of proximate cause can be challenged in some cases, perhaps disproven in others. The failure of a plaintiff to prove proximate cause will result in a determination that the defendant physician is not liable. Radiologists who are named as defendants in malpractice lawsuits who have reason to believe that proximate cause may not be present should ask their defense attorney to carefully examine the issue.
