New York residents may be interested in a recent jury decision which awarded a family $2.4 million. In 2007, a woman died after seeking emergency treatment for severe pain in her abdomen and back. Two years earlier, she had undergone gastric bypass surgery, a relatively common procedure. Often, bowel obstruction is a complication in this type of surgery, but the suit claimed that the failure to diagnose this lead to her death.

While Yankee Alex Rodriguez is facing his own issues related to the 211-game suspension handed down in August, A-Rod also recently decided to file a lawsuit related to the medical care he received in October 2012. He claims that while an injury was clearly seen on a MRI, the Yankees physician did not tell him about the injury and cleared him to play. 

Diagnostic errors may be a bigger problem than the general public realizes. In fact, when researchers from Johns Hopkins analyzed 350,000 medical malpractice payouts — stemming back 25 years — one-third of those payouts were the result of a misdiagnosis. This makes diagnostic errors one of the leading patient safety concerns in the U.S.