Patient Dies Of Advanced Prostate Cancer Despite His Doctors For Years Knew He Had Symptoms And His Screening Test Results Were Abnormal
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-08-30 10:37:42 | Word Count: 617
Many people have had the experience of consulting more than one doctor regarding a health concern merely to realize that they have different opinnions and different recommendations. Any time a misdiagnosis could actually mean the difference between life and death this could result in a serious problem for the patient. When the patient is informed of each doctor's conclusions and the rationale behind those conclusions the at least the patient can reach an informed decision based on his or her level of risk tolerance. Hence in the event that a doctor has information or reaches a conclusion that the patient should have immediate follow up or treatment it is critical for that physician to inform the patient and possibly also at least the patient's primary care physician.
Consider the following reported medical malpractice claim. Several doctors had a chance to detect the man's prostate cancer while it was still in its early stages. The individual first saw his primary care physician (PCP), a general practitioner, with complaints of urinary problems at 56 years old age. The primary care physician decided that the issues were not due to cancer although no testing was done to rule out cancer.
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Ten months later the patient consulted with a urologist who did a physical examination on the prostate gland and did a PSA blood test. As it turned out this urologist was not covered under the patient's insurance and so the patient consulted with a different urologist.
The PSA test ordered by the first urologist came back and that urologist advised a biopsy. However, that recommendation apparently did not get communicated to the family doctor or the urologist approved by the insurance company. The second urologist decided that the examination of the prostate was normal and that there was no indication of cancer.
It took another 2 years when the patient's prostate cancer was finally diagnosed. By that time, the cancer had spread outside the prostate and was now advanced. Had the cancer been caught at the time the patient initially told his physicians that he had urinary problems, when he saw the first urologist, or even when the second urologist failed to find any abnormalities with his prostate and failed to order a PSA test, it would not have yet spread and, with treatment, the patient would have had approximately 97 percent prospect of surviving the cancer. Since the cancer was by now advanced at the time of diagnosis, however, the patient was not expected to live more than five years. The law firm that helped the patient revealed that the resulting medical malpractice lawsuit settled for $2.5 Million.
This case therefore shows 2 key varieties of failures. There was the failure on the part of the general practitioner and the second urologist to not follow the proper screening guidelines. The other error was one in communication. This occurred when there was a miscommunication of the findings, suspicions, and advice of the urologist who was outside the insurance network and the other doctors. While it is impossible to know whether the PCP or the second urologist would have followed up on results of the PSA test from the first urologist or on that urologist's suspicion and recommendation they at least would have had information and perspective they were missing.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting cancer malpractice cases. To learn about metastatic prostate cancer and other cancer matters including breastcancer visit the websites
