Sixty Four Year Old Man Learns He Has Metastatic Colon Cancer Even Though His Physician Knew Of Symptoms For Years
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-06-21 14:05:56 | Word Count: 604
In a number of cases colon cancers bleed. Occasionally, the blood may be visible in the stool. In cases where the cancer is in the vicinity of the rectum, the blood might even appear as bright red. Regardless of whether the blood is not visible, it might yet be possible to find out that the person is bleeding in other ways. As an example, the loss of blood may show up as anemia. Blood tests might reveal internal blood loss that might be the consequence of cancer in the colon. The main blood test results to check are the hemoglobin, hematocrit, and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) levels. Low levels may suggest blood loss and iron deficiency anemia. If an inidividual has levels that are below normal levels for these tests doctors commonly agree that there ought to be additional testing to determine the reason for the blood loss, like the possibility of cancer of the colon.
Consider the case of a sixty four year old man whose blood tests exhibited all of the above. The subsequent year, the patient's blood work showed a worsening of the man's problem. Furthermore, a guaiac test revealed that there was blood in the patient's stool. Without any further testing, the man's doctor documented a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the patient's record. Additionally, the patient's PSA level (a test that is used to screen males for prostate cancer) was a 10.3 (anything above a 4.0 is often deemed high and suggestive of possible prostate cancer). The doctor made no mention in the individual's chart to document an examination of the gland. The doctor failed to inform him about the high PSA levels and failed to refer the person to a specialist.
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Approximately 2 years later the individual went to a different physician. Because of the patient's age this doctor had him undergo a barium enema. The result: a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. The individual died of the spread of the cancer within three years following his diagnosis. The individual's family pursued a lawsuit against the doctor who ignored the patient's abnormally low blood test results and dismissed the existence of blood in the man's stool. The law firm that handled the matter was able to report that it settled for $1.25 million.
Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test results are indicators that there might be something wrong, maybe even critically wrong with the person and call for follow up. Sometimes follow up includes repeating the blood test in just a short amount of time to see whether the levels return to normal but when the levels are sufficiently above or below normal levels or continue to worsen, physicians usually agree that this increases the need to order appropriate supplemental tests to determine the reason behind those levels. Physicians further generally recognize that blood in the stool of an adult person mandates fast attention to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer as the reason. A colonoscopy is most frequently ordered to examine the entire colon and either find or rule out the existence of any tumors. This doctor did not do any of this.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. You can learn more about
advanced colon cancer and other cancer cases including
metastasized breast cancer visit the website
