Family Of 54 Year Old Woman Recovers $875,000 In Settlement With Doctor Who Did Not Find Her Colon Cancer During Three Different Colonoscopies
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-08-21 14:40:48 | Word Count: 801
Some people are at risk of having or developing some types of cancer. With colon cancer, as an illustration, people with certain conditions (such as chron's disease), with certain symptoms (such as blood in the stool), or with family members who have had colon cancer (especially first degree relatives) are at risk. The main procedure employed by doctors to test for colon cancer if a patient has a family history or reports a symptom, such as blood in the stool, is the colonoscopy. With this procedure doctors are able to visualize the inside of the colon and search for the presence of abnormal (and possibly cancerous) growths. Ordinarily, physicians advise that even those who are not at increased risk nonetheless get screened beginning at age fifty.
But in order to be reliable a colonoscopy needs to be complete. It must check out the total length of the colon. One of the reasons that a physician may not finish the colonoscopy is inadequate prior preparation resulting in inadequate visualization or the presence of an obstruction which makes it impossible to pass the scope beyond the region of the obstruction. If circumstances like these happen the doctor ought to tell the patient and recommend that the person either have an alternative procedure or a repeat colonoscopy. In the event that the doctor does not let the patient know that the colonoscopy was no finished or that there was poor visibility and advise appropriate follow up too much time may pass before the patient begins to show symptoms or has another screening procedure.
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This is what happened in one published claim about a 54 year old female who died from metastatic colon cancer. Look at her medical history. The woman had a family history of colon cancer. Throughout the length of six years, physicians performed three colonospies on her. On numerous occasions she continued to report to her doctors that she was suffering from pain in the abdomen and that she saw blood in her stool. At least one time her blood work additionally recorded that she had anemia. All three are possible symptoms of colon cancer.
The records from 2 of the colonoscopies indicated that the visualization was poor of the ascending colon and cecum as the scope could not be passed beyond the transverse colon. But, this very physician continued to assure the woman that she did not need to be concerned. The doctor kept saying to the patient that her symptoms were due to hemorroids, never informing her that it had not been possible to examine the entire colon.
Eventually the patient had exploratory surgery in an attempt to figure out the reason why she was experiencing the symptoms. The cancer was discovered during the surgery. The cancer had grown and spread so far that she had to have a significant portion of her intestines removed and then had to undergo chemotherapy. Sadly, even with treatment she died from the cancer. Because of the doctor's failure to order additional testing to determine the source of her symptoms in light of two incomplete colonoscopies the woman's surviving family pursued a lawsuit. The law firm handled the claim was able to document that they were able to obtain a recovery for the family in the amount of $875,000
Doctors employ diagnostic tests in order to verify the existence of or exclude certain diseases for example several varieties of cancers. For example, the colonoscopy is a procedure employed to locate or rule out colon cancer. But the result of the test is only as good as the precision with which the test was performed. A colonoscopy uses a scope to see the inside of the colon in order to ascertain whether there are any polyps or tumors in the colon
When the entire colon is not visualized, as in the case above, a doctor cannot depend on it to exclude cancer. Doing so makes about as much sense as only listening to one of your lungs, examining only one of your eyes, or ordering only part of a complete blood count. In the event that the patient does have cancer this could bring about a delay in diagnosis that gives the cancer time to grow and advance to an incurable stage. Under such circumstances the doctor who counted on such an incomplete procedure might be liable under a medical malpractice or even wrongful death claim.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting cancer cases. You can learn more about cases involving coloncancer and other cancers including breastcancer by visiting the websites
