Drexler

INTRODUCTION

Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5 provides that a plaintiff in an action for medical malpractice must file the action within three years of the date of injury or one year after the plaintiff discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, whichever occurs first. We hold that, when the plaintiff in a medical malpractice action alleges the defendant health care provider misdiagnosed or failed to diagnose a preexisting disease or condition, there is no injury for purposes of section 340.5 until the plaintiff first experiences appreciable harm as a result of the misdiagnosis, which is when the plaintiff first becomes aware that a preexisting disease or condition has developed into a more serious one.

Steve B. Drexler filed this medical malpractice action against Dr. David J. Petersen, a primary care physician, Dr. Craig German, a neurologist, and their employer, Healthcare Partners Medical Group, Inc., alleging that Dr. Petersen and Dr. German negligently misdiagnosed the cause of his headaches. When finally an emergency room doctor correctly diagnosed a brain tumor as the cause of the headaches, Drexler needed…