Let's say you go to the doctor and she tells you, you have a rare incurable disease and only have a few months to live. You put your affairs in order, live like there is no tomorrow, etc. Then you are told that you no longer have the disease or perhaps never did.

Would you consider your not dying to be a miracle or a medical mistake? less

I honestly cannot imagine a situation where such a serious mistake could be made. There are simply too many multiple layers of check, double check and triple check, in medicine today. Of course, if you were told you had ANY serious disease, that diagnosis would be followed up with many, many more tests and so the initial misdiagnosis or mistake would have been revealed in short order. This is not 1850. less

The converse occurred with my late spouse. She'd gotten a warning that she "might" have cancer and followed it up with a doctor who specialized in that kind of thing. He did a few tests and said not to worry... About a year later she had another test for something else and it revealed that in that year the original cancer had spread and it was then too late for a cure. less

I wouldn't consider it a miracle -- a miracle would be to actually have the fatal disease and have it disappear. However, I would be delighted that I no longer had a death sentence, so to speak!

And what exactly would you be suing for? It's your health, your decision to get different opinions and your decision to alter the way you live your life based on what you hear. I think there is an underlying assumption here that the person living like there's no tomorrow is doing things that compromise their future should they actually live. That is no one's fault but the owner of the body.

I am not saying it isn't understandable that some people would react a certain way and then end up in dire straits, but that would be the individual's decision & responsibility. less

The converse occurred with my late spouse. She'd gotten a warning that she "might" have cancer and followed it up with a doctor who specialized in that kind of thing. He did a few tests and said not to worry... About a year later she had another test for something else and it revealed that in that year the original cancer had spread and it was then too late for a cure. less

You saying "lung cancer" kind of say's it all. Some types, such as "small oat cell" can mimic pneumonia or simply allergic pulmonary inflammation, for a while. The radiological picture may be very inconclusive or even "benign". There may be a mild cough and not much else. In a smoker, some of these can be very advanced before real notable symptoms occur. It is all very sad. less