A “lost chance of survival action” is usually brought in the context of a medical malpractice action and may be appropriate if death was a possible result of the underlying disease or condition, but wasn’t certain and medical negligence caused a loss of the chance of survival.
For example, if a person who was afflicted with a particular type of cancer had a 35% chance of surviving the cancer, but a failure to timely diagnose or properly treat the cancer resulted in death, a wrongful death action may not be appropriate because survival was not more likely than not. However, the negligence did result in a loss of that chance of survival.
