How A Diagnosis Of Prostate Cancer Metastasis Could End Up In A Medical Malpractice Claim
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-10-03 21:33:38 | Word Count: 1001
Envision finding out that you have prostate cancer. That's difficult because "cancer" is a word that engenders a feeling of terror at the very though. Yet maybe, you tell yourself, perhaps it is not that bad. Maybe we caught it before it metastasized and with the right treatment I'll survive it.
Yet it gets worse. Envision then learning that is too late for that. The cancer has already metastasized to other areas of your body. A cure is thus no longer a possibility. The best you can hope for is treatment that will slow down the progress of the disease. And later, after that treatment no longer works, treatment that will lessen the pain from the ever growing cancer.
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Perhaps you ask yourself, "Why me?" "Was it merely poor luck?" And then you will likely ask "Was there any way this could have been avoided?" "Was there anything I might have done differently that would have avoided what now is an incurable disease?"
But it does not end there. Envision now figuring out that your physician, the individual you trusted to keep you healthy and to warn you of any possible health problems, had information that you were likely to develop prostate cancer. Think about finding out that your doctor had this information a year or more prior to when you learned you had cancer. And image discovering that if your doctor had informed you when it was first available your cancer could have been discovered while it was still contained within the prostate gland and could have been cured, could have been eliminated with proper treatment.
Do you believe that this will never happen to you? Well, look at what happened to the male patients involved in the following situations:
Case:
Over a 3 year period a primary care physician failed to tell his patient that the results of blood tests showed that the patient's PSA level was not only high it was also climbing. When the physician finally informed the man about the abnormal test results the result was a diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer. The only options available for treatment at that point were radiation therapy and hormone therapy - employed in an attempt to slow the cancer's growth and spread.
Case:
In addition to failing to tell the patient that he had an elevated and rising PSA, the physician actually stated to him that the test results were normal. The patient found out he had cancer of the prostate only after he went to a urologist at the urging of a family member. The diagnosis - prostate cancer that had spread to the seminal vesicles.
Case:
A primary care physician conducted a digital examination of the patient's prostate gland and found that his prostate gland had a hardened area. The doctor did not inform the man. The doctor failed to refer the patient to a urologist for a consult. The doctor also failed to order a biopsy to establish if the hardened area was cancerous or benign. When the patient eventually discovered the cancer it had already metastasized to other parts of his body.
Case:
The patient has high PSA levels for more than two years. But, his physician failed to let him know for that whole period of time. When the man was finally diagnosed with prostate cancer he attempted surgery in the hopes that the cancer was still confined to the prostate gland and that surgery could eliminate the cancer. He also underwent months of hormonal therapy. And then post-surgical PSA levels confirmed that the surgery did not eliminate the cancer and that it is still present in his body.
There were law firms that represented the patients and families in each of the cases discussed above. The law firms that handled these cases reported being able to resolve the lawsuits in amounts that ranged from $400,000 to $1,500,000.
Scenarios like the above happen all too frequently. Whether the physicians fail to look at the results of the tests, whether they buy into the believe that there is no need to take action even though the PSA is high or a nodule of a certain size is detected in the prostate, or whether they simply do not comprehend the guidelines and the standard of care for the action that is proper when screening results are abnormal, these physicians are responsible a delay that brings about the growth and spread of the cancer.
Some physicians do not believe that there is any benefit to screening men for prostate cancer (or do not understand the guidelines) and either simply do not screen their male patients or recommend against it. Other doctors do not check the results of screening tests while other doctors fail to follow up on an abnormal screening test result and not order a biopsy or refer the patient to a specialist. The result is often tragic: an unnecessary death from a cancer that could have been cured if found while in the early stages.
What if you were the patient who received such news. You would likely fight the cancer as hard and as long as you could. What if you were his spouse, his child, his parent? You would help him fight the cancer and you offer him all the love and support you had to give.
Maybe you might decide to bring a lawsuit for medical malpractice to help protect your family's future. And you might hope that if forced to confront the error and to pay a cost for it, maybe, just maybe, the doctor will alter how he or she treats other patients subsequently so that this tragedy will never arise again.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting cancer cases. To learn about prostatecancer and other cancer matters including breastcancer visit the websites
