My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: California
My wife had severe headaches two years ago. Local hospital took a CT scan and the ER doc thought there was something unusual on the scan so he sent it to nearby Trauma Center at larger hospital 45 minutes away. Radiologist at larger hospital thought possible brain bleed and advised to move the patient carefully but immediately for further investigation.
Wife spent 3 days at larger hospital, had MRI with contrast of her head and did a spinal tap to check for blood. Spinal tap was negative, "Head NeuroSurgeon" at hospital said the MRI should a "spot" but he thought it was just an old lesion or damage and didn't believe it was related to the headache. Headache faded and she was released and told to get the "spot" checked every year or so to see if it changes.
Wife also has a painful kidney disease, where she passes one or two kidney stones per week. Since we were told the images looked good overall, we put the head issue on the back burner. This January, two years removed from first episode, wife has three events spaced one month apart where she sort of mumbles her words, has difficulty comprehending everything and some tingling/numbness in extremities...sort of like a stroke. She sees general practitioner, says sounds like seizure and refers to Neurologist. Runs blood work, EEG and MRI and immediately refers to Neurosurgeon when she sees a mass on the MRI.
See new Neurosurgeon who confirms a mass, probably AVM (Arterial Venous Malformation) in the brain. Pulls up MRI image from hospital two years prior and sees the exact same mass. I asked if this sort of mass/AVM would cause a severe headache and neurosurgeon says, "Absolutely."
Wife now facing one or more procedures which could be life threatening to fix or neutralize condition. The failure to diagnose the condition two years ago has lead to multiple seizures and possible permanent loss of some cognitive ability and speach and constant seizures (small or more serious at times.) Had this been noted two years ago, she could have had the mass treated then and probably avoided the events over the last 6 months. Is there a case for Malpractice here for the failure to identify the condition and subsequent damage and possible permanent effect? The large hospital was San Jose Regional Medical Center, if this helps.
Thanks for any advice.

