When Something Feels Wrong About What Happened at the Hospital
There’s a particular kind of uncertainty that comes with stroke misdiagnosis. The diagnosis was eventually made, or perhaps it still hasn’t been made clearly. Someone you love has been changed, possibly permanently. And you’re left with questions the hospital hasn’t answered.
- What were the symptoms when your family member arrived?
- What tests were run—and what wasn’t ordered?
- Was there a delay before imaging was done?
- Was your loved one discharged and then returned by ambulance?
Those questions matter. And getting answers to them is exactly what this process is designed for.
When families reach out to our firm, the first thing we do is listen. We want to understand the full picture of what happened: the timeline, the symptoms, what providers said, and what changed. From there, we gather the medical records and imaging and have them reviewed by independent medical experts.
The consultation is free. The review is handled by our team. Families don’t pay anything unless compensation is recovered.
Our Process
We guide you through every step with clear communication and compassionate support.
Free Consultation
Call us anytime to discuss your case. We listen carefully and answer all your questions with no obligation.
Medical Review
Our team conducts a thorough investigation with qualified medical experts to determine if malpractice occurred.
Legal Action
If we find evidence of negligence, we build a strong case and handle all legal aspects on your behalf.
Secure Recovery
We fight to secure the financial resources your family needs for long-term care and peace of mind.
The Case That Goes Unseen: How Strokes Get Missed
Stroke misdiagnosis isn’t rare, and it doesn’t always involve negligent care. Some of it happens because stroke symptoms can mimic other conditions closely. Some of it happens because the presentation is atypical. But it can also happen because the standard of care wasn’t followed, and that’s the distinction that matters.
Strokes affecting the brainstem or cerebellum are particularly likely to be misdiagnosed. They often present without the classic facial drooping or arm weakness most people associate with stroke. Instead, patients may have:
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Nausea
- Coordination problems that look like inner ear issues, a migraine, or even a panic attack
Patients, especially younger ones, are sometimes told nothing serious is wrong and sent home.
Other contributing factors include:
- Delayed or absent CT or MRI scans
- Imaging errors
- Failure to consult a neurologist
- Early discharge before symptoms have been properly worked up
In each of these cases, the question the medical review examines is the same: Did the care this patient received meet the standard a reasonably careful provider would have applied?
How Arkansas’s Geography Affects Care
Arkansas sits squarely within the Stroke Belt—the region of the southeastern United States where stroke incidence, mortality, and long-term disability rates are measurably higher than the rest of the country. The reasons are layered: higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, combined with a healthcare infrastructure that reflects the state’s predominantly rural character.
Much of Arkansas lies far from a comprehensive stroke center. In rural counties, and there are many, patients experiencing stroke symptoms may be transported to a small community hospital not equipped to deliver advanced stroke treatment. If that hospital can’t provide tPA or endovascular therapy (mechanical clot removal), the patient needs to be transferred. How quickly that happens, and whether the transfer was executed efficiently, is something the medical review examines carefully.
Researchers who study hospital transfer quality for stroke patients track what’s called the door-in-door-out (DIDO) time: how long a patient spends at the first facility before being moved to a stroke center. National data published in JAMA suggests significant variation in DIDO times across hospitals, and prolonged delays at referring facilities are associated with worse medical outcomes. Arkansas’s DIDO times are:
- 146 to 209 minutes for acute ischemic stroke eligible for endovascular therapy
- 168 to 193 minutes for other acute ischemic stroke
This is substantially longer than the Brain Attack Coalition and Joint Commission’s benchmark of less than 120 minutes and the American Heart Association’s benchmark of less than 90 minutes.
What the Review Seeks to Determine
The independent medical review our firm coordinates examines the full arc of care from first contact. This includes:
- What symptoms were documented on arrival, and how they were characterized
- Whether appropriate diagnostic imaging was ordered, and how quickly
- Whether the clinical picture warranted neurology consultation
- How the treatment timeline compared to established stroke protocols
- Whether discharge decisions were appropriate given the patient’s presentation
The review isn’t searching for someone to blame. It’s asking whether care was delivered in a way that met accepted standards; when it wasn’t, families have a right to know that.
Sometimes the review confirms that providers acted reasonably under difficult circumstances, that the presentation was genuinely ambiguous, and that the outcome wasn’t the result of a deviation from expected care. When that’s the finding, it matters too. Families are able to grieve without carrying the added weight of unanswered questions.
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If the Review Finds Issues with Your Loved One’s Care
When the medical review identifies a departure from the standard of care, a legal case can be built on that foundation. Medical malpractice claims in stroke cases require establishing what the appropriate standard of care was, how the care provided fell short of it, and how that shortfall contributed to the harm your family member suffered.
Responsibility in these cases doesn’t always fall on a single provider. An emergency physician, a nursing team, a hospitalist, a radiology department, a hospital administration, or a transferring facility may each bear a portion of responsibility depending on what the records show.
What Families Can Do Right Now
If you haven’t already, begin preserving everything you have. This includes:
- Medical records and imaging discs from every facility involved
- Discharge paperwork and any written instructions given at discharge
- A written timeline of symptoms and events, including conversations with providers
- Any notes you took during hospital visits
The sooner these materials are gathered, the better. Medical records can become harder to obtain over time, and an account of what happened, written while it’s fresh, is genuinely valuable.
The Real Measure of a Case: What Your Family May Need
The goal of a stroke misdiagnosis case isn’t punishment. It’s the resources your family may need to move forward. For patients who survived with permanent disability, those needs can be substantial.
Depending on the severity of the outcome, long-term care may involve skilled nursing, in-home assistance, rehabilitation services, adaptive equipment, and modifications to living spaces. Lost income, for the patient and often for a family caregiver, can span years or decades.
| Type of Care | Estimated Cost in Arkansas |
| Non-medical caregiver (hourly rate) | $25/hour |
| Private duty nurse (visit rate) | $185/visit |
| Long-term care facility, e.g., nursing home (semi-private room) | $89,425/year |
| Long-term care facility, e.g., nursing home (private room) | $96,725/year |
Source: Genworth
For patients with severe outcomes, including locked-in syndrome, lifetime care costs often run into the millions. Establishing that liability clearly, and quantifying what the family will need, is work our firm takes seriously.
An Arkansas locked-in syndrome attorney from our team can help you identify your losses and fight for compensation.
What Working With Our Firm Looks Like
We take a limited number of cases. That’s intentional. It means attorneys stay directly involved and families stay in control of the process.
We start by listening. We’ve found that families often know more than they’ve been told, and that the record of what happened is frequently clearer than it first appears once the right questions are asked. Our team coordinates the independent medical review and walks families through the findings in plain language.
If the review supports a case and the family wants to move forward, we handle the litigation. Our firm has experience with complex stroke cases and catastrophic injury claims, including cases involving delayed diagnosis, failed transfers, and failures in emergency neurology. We take on that complexity because it’s where our work makes the most difference.
There are no fees unless our stroke misdiagnosis lawyers recover compensation.
Start With a Conversation
A consultation doesn’t mean you’ve decided to file a case. It means you want to understand what happened. That’s a reasonable thing to want.
Our team will listen to what occurred, explain what a review would examine, and give you an honest picture of where things stand. There’s no cost, no commitment, and no pressure.
If your family is carrying unanswered questions about a stroke that was delayed in diagnosis or missed entirely, we’re here to help you find answers.
What Our Clients Say
Real stories from families we've helped through difficult times.
5.0
Newsome Law are fantastic! They have been working on my case for the past 3+ years and I have not once had a bad experience with anyone who works there. They have worked tirelessly to help me through my accident and the medical bills that loomed overhead. I am extremely pleased and grateful to have them, fighting on my side during this period in my life.
5.0
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Newsome Law Is a step above all the rest. They are not some run-of-the-mill Firm. But rather an experienced Team of established excellence and success. As one of Newsome Law’s grateful clients, they always operated in the best interest of my family. Were always available to take my call , and were compassionate to the pain and needs of my family. Newsome Law is the right Firm for you to choose.
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5.0
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5.0
When you’re in a hospital bed all jacked up from an accident and you google best personal injury attorneys, this is who you will find, and they are. Never had been in a lawsuit before and had never needed an attorney. They took such amazing care of me, and handled everything so professionally. A great team of paralegals and attorneys. Thank you so much guys.
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