A healthcare provider did not identify a medical condition when reasonable care likely would have.

"Did not identify" can mean missing the condition entirely, dismissing warning signs, or ordering too little follow-up to reach the right answer. "Reasonable care" does not mean perfection, and bad outcomes alone do not prove medical malpractice. Doctors are not guarantors. But the old excuse that "medicine is just uncertain" gets overused. If symptoms, test results, or obvious risk factors pointed toward a condition and a competent provider would have investigated further, a failure to diagnose may have happened. The key question is usually whether the provider's conduct fell below the accepted standard of care.

That matters because delay can do damage all by itself. A missed stroke, cancer, infection, fracture, or internal injury can become harder to treat, more expensive, and more disabling. In an injury claim, it is not enough to show the diagnosis was wrong or late. The patient usually must show causation too - that the missed diagnosis probably worsened the outcome, reduced treatment options, or caused additional harm.

In West Virginia, these claims often fall under the Medical Professional Liability Act. A lawsuit is generally subject to a two-year deadline, with a limited discovery rule in some cases, under W. Va. Code § 55-7B and related limitations law. Waiting for "one more opinion" is often bad advice; records, timelines, and expert review usually decide these cases.