Jury Gives $2.75 Million To Advanced Prostate Cancer Patient Whose Doctor Failed To Do Requested Screening
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-08-28 11:39:12 | Word Count: 666
Prostate cancer impacts African-American men earlier and frequently more aggressively than other men. Men of African-American descent are at higher risk of having prostate cancer at a younger age. As such, doctors ordinarily suggest that African-American men ought to be informed about screening tests available for prostate cancer earlier (the recommended age being 45) so as to raise the chances that if they do develop cancer it might be diagnosed at an early stage before it metastasizes. By starting earlier for African-American men screening has the potential of allowing for the detection of the cancer at an earlier and possibly curable stage. When doctors do not follow the guidelines for cancer screening andtheir patient is subsequently diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer that physician may be liable for medical malpractice.
Aside from standard screening for cancer, doctors also should really be able to recognize and follow up in the event that a patient has complaints suggestive of possible cancer. Physicians also should either perform screening testing requested by a patient or clearly inform the individual that they will not do the test and that the patient will need to see another doctor if he still wishes to be screened. For example, in a documented case the patient was an African-American man, age 41, who asked to be tested for prostate cancer. The man asked for the screening test after participating in a campaign to improve awareness concerning the risk middle-aged African-American men face when it comes to prostate cancer.
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The physician performed a digital examination and uncovered no abnormalities. The physician ordered blood tests for the patient yet failed to get a PSA test. The physician failed to inform the patient that no PSA test had been ordered. The patient was seen again by the same doctor 2 years later. This time the doctor failed to perform a physical examination of the prostate and just as before did not order a PSA test.
What this physician did was to leave the man with a false sense of security. By doing the digital examination of the prostate and ordering blood tests the physician gave the man the perception that the physician had conducted a full screening. Without doubt the patient believed that the lack of any communication about the results to indicate that the results must have been normal. This put him at ease with respect to whatever worries motivated him to request the screening.
Later that year the patient saw a different physician in the same practice. This doctor both completed a digital examination and order a PSA test. The patient was diagnosed with prostate cancer with bone metastasis. Given that the male patient was now nearing 45 and under the guidelines the physician would typically only at this time have at a minimum had a conversation about screening. In this instance, though, the man had specifically asked to be screened earlier and the actions of the physician had led him to expect he had been.
The patient filed a lawsuit against the physician who had not ordered the PSA testing. The law firm that took the case reported that it took the case to trail where a jury awarded the plaintiff $2,750,000. The defense appealed and the parties settled for a confidential amount as the appeals was pending. Although the amount of the settlement was confidential it was less than the amount of the verdict. This is not an unusual way for both parties to reduce the risk of an adverse ruling by the Appeals Court. In this case the Appeals Court subsequently denied the appeal.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting cancer malpractice cases. To learn about prostate cancer metastasis and other cancer matters including breast cancer metastasis visit the websites
