How Medical Malpractice Lawsuit May Arise Out Of Delayed Diagnosis Of Colon Cancer
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-12-28 22:38:04 | Word Count: 960
The very mention of the term "colon cancer" tends to raise worry in nearly all of us. It can hence feel quite reassuring to hear your physician tell you that you just have hemorrhoids and there is no need to be concerned about the blood in your stool. However this reassurance ought to not be given until the physician has eliminated the possibility of colon cancer (and other potentially dangerous gastrointestinal problems). Else, you may not learn that you have colon cancer before it is too late. If a physician who automatically assumes that reports of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding by a patient are the result of hemorrhoids and it later turns out to be colon cancer, that physician might not have met the standard of care. Under those circimstances, the patient might be able to pursue a lawsuit against that doctor.
Over 10 million men and women have hemorrhoids. An additional 1,000,000 new instances of hemorrhoids will probably arise this year as opposed to a little over the 100 thousand new instances of colon cancer that will be detected this year. In addition, colon cancers do not always. If they do, the bleeding could be intermittent. And based on where the cancer is in the colon, the blood might not even be apparent in the stool. Perhaps it is simply due to the difference in the volume of cases being diagnosed that some doctors merely assume that the existence of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is due to hemorrhoids. This is playing the odds. A physician who reaches this conclusion will be right greater than 90% of the time. It sounds sensible, doesn't it? The difficulty, though, is that if the physician is inaccurate in this diagnosis, the patient may not discover he or she has colon cancer before it has developed to an advanced stage, maybe even to the point where it is no longer treatable.
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In the event colon cancer is found before it metastasizes outside the colon, the patient's chances of surviving the cancer are above 80%. The 5 year survival rate is a statistical guage of the percentage of individuals who survive the disease for at least 5 years subsequent to diagnosis. Treatment protocols for early stage colon cancer often entails only surgery so as to take out the cancerous growth and surrounding areas of the colon. Subject to factors including how advanced the cancer is and the individual's medical history (including family medical history), how old the person is, and the individual's physical condition, chemotherapy may or may not be required.
This is why physicians commonly recommend that a colonoscopy ought to be completed right away if a patient has blood in the stool or rectal bleeding. A colonoscopy is a method that uses a flexible scope with a camera on the end is used to examine the inside of the colon. If growths (polyps or tumors) are detected, they can be extracted (if sufficiently small) or sampled and checked for the existence of cancer (by biopsy). Colon cancer may effectively be ruled out as the reason for the blood only if a colonoscopy finds no cancer
However, if the cancer is not detected until it has spread outside of the colon and has reached the lymph nodes, the individual's five year survival rate will normally be approximately fifty three percent In addition to surgery to take out the tumor and adjacent portions of the colon treatment for this stage of colon cancer calls for chemotherapy in an attempt to eliminate any cancer that may be left in the body. When the cancer reaches other organs like the liver, lungs, or brain, the individual's 5 year survival rate is reduced to approximately 8%. Now treatment may entail surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other medications. Treatment may or may not still be helpful once the cancer is this advanced. If treatment stops being effective, colon cancer is fatal. This year, around forty eight thousand individuals will die in the U.S. from metastatic colon cancer.
By telling the patient that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding as caused by hemorrhoids while not completing the proper tests to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer, a physician puts the patient at risk of not finding out he or she has colon cancer until it reaches an advanced, possibly no longer treatable, stage. This may constitute a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and may result in a medical malpractice claim.
If you or a family member were assured by a physician that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding were because of nothing more than hemorrhoids, and were subsequently diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer, you need to consult a lawyer at once. This article is for basic educational purposes only and does not constitute legal (or medical) advice. If you have any medical issues you should consult with a physician. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information in this article but ought to instead consult with an attorney. A competent attorney with experience in medical malpractice may be able to help you determine should you have a claim for a delay in the diagnosis of the colon cancer. Do not wait to contact a lawyer are there is a time limit in lawsuits such as these.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. You can learn more about colon cancer and other cancer cases including breast cancer metastasis visit the website
