Physician Does Incorrect Test For Man With Symptoms Of Colon Cancer And Holdup Ends In Metastasis Of The Cancer
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-11-04 14:22:34 | Word Count: 691
When it comes to a number of cancers such as colon cancer there are well-defined recommendations and guidelines for which tests to perform if a patient complains of certain symptoms. In the event that a physician fails to adhere to these recommendations and the patient does have cancer which ultimately ends up spreading from the resulting holdup in diagnosis, that physician risks a lawsuit. As an example of such a situation consider the following published case.
At the time the patient in this matter first started treating with his primary care physician the doctor did a full physical examination and recorded his findings of both internal and external hemorrhoids. The physician recorded that the man had bleeding from the rectum periodically. The physician did not do any more testing to figure out whether there was any blood in the patient's stool or to determine the source of the bleeding. Also, even though the patient was 50 years old at the time, the doctor failed to send the patient for a sigmoidoscopy or a colonoscopy in order to screen for colon cancer
.
[ advertisement ]
After 2 years, following multiple days of abdominal pain the patient was seen in the urgent care department at his physician's office. The nurse who did the examination put an entry in his medical chart that she detected occult blood in the man's stool during a guiaic test. When the patient came back for a follow-up with his physician but the doctor did not do anything about the positive finding of blood in the stool. The physician did though recommend that the individual undergo a screening sigmoidoscopy and sent him to a gastroenterologist. The gastroenterologist performed the sigmoidoscopy as requested by the doctor rather than a full colonoscopy. The gastroenterologist only checked up to thirty-five centimeters and noted only the existence of hemorrhoids none of which were bleeding but failed to figure out the reason for the prior finding of blood in the stool.
Two years later, the patient was again seen by the internist this time for bloating of the abdomen. As the internist conducted a physical examination of the individual he was able to detect an a mass along the liver and had the patient get a CT scan which found large masses present both in the liver as well as the colon:. At this point the internist at last sent the patient for a colonoscopy which confirmed colon cancer. By then however, the patient had metastatic colon cancer which had progressed to such a degree that surgery was no longer an option. The individual began treating with chemotherapy yet passed away just over a year after his diagnosis.
A lawsuit was initiated against both doctors by the family of the patient. The law firm that handled this lawsuit reported that they were succesfull in achieving a settlement for $1.5 million on behalf of the man's family.
This lawsuit illustrates the importance of conducting proper tests for symptoms that suggest the possibility of colon cancer. In particular if a person has blood in the stool doctors generally concur that a colonoscopy and not a sigmoidoscopy should be done to rule out cancer. By performing only a sigmoidoscopy in this instance the physicians did not examine the full length of the man's colon and hence wrongly eliminated colon cancer as a possible reason for the blood. This resulted in a two year holdup in the detection of the patient's cancer. The law firm that handled this matter for the man's family no doubt had medical experts prepared to testify that had such a delay not happened the individual's cancer would not have spread and the man would have survived after treatment.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. For additional information on colon cancer metastasis and other cancer matters including stage 4 breast cancer by visiting the websites
