$1,250,000 Settlement In Lawsuit Claiming Doctor Failed To Follow Up On Symptoms Of Colon Cancer

In a number of cases colon cancers bleed. Under some circumstances, the blood may be visible in the stool. IN those circumstances in which the cancer is near the rectum, the blood might even appear as bright red. Even though the blood cannot be seen, the bleeding may still be detectible in other ways. As an example, the loss of blood might show up as anemia. Blood tests may disclose internal loss of blood that might be the result of a tumor in the colon. Crucial blood test results to check are the hemoglobin, hematocrit, and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) levels. Low levels may suggest blood loss and iron deficiency anemia. Any time a person presents with levels that are below normal levels for these tests doctors commonly recognize that there should be follow up to determine the explanation for the blood loss, including the possibility of cancer of the colon.

Consider the matter of a 64 year old male patient whose blood tests showed all of the above. The following year, the patient’s blood work found a worsening of the person's problem. Furthermore, a guaiac test showed the presence of blood in the patient's stool. Yet, doing no other testing or sending the patient to a gastroenterologist the indivual's physician inserted a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the individual's record. In addition, the person's PSA level (a test that is used to screen males for prostate cancer) was a 10.3 (a level above a 4.0 is usually viewed as high and worrisome for prostate cancer). The doctor did not put any report in the person's chart to indicate an having examined the prostate gland. The physician failed to inform the person about the high PSA levels and failed to refer the patient to a specialist.

Roughly 2 years after the person was seen by another physician. Due to the individual's age this physician had him undergo a barium enema. The result: a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. The person died of metastatic colon cancer not even three years subsequent to his diagnosis. The person's family pursued a case against the physician who dismissed the patient’s abnormally low blood test results and overlooked the existence of blood in the man’s stool. The law firm that represented the family was able to report that it settled for $1.25 million.

Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test results suggest that there may be something wrong, perhaps even severely wrong with the person and call for follow up. At times follow up includes repeating the blood test in just a brief amount of time to find out if the levels improve but when the levels deviate sufficiently from normal levels or continue to worsen, doctors ordinarily acknowledge that this increases the need to order proper other tests to determine the reason behind those levels. Physicians further commonly consent that blood in the stool of an adult individual mandates fast attention to rule out cancer of the colon as the reason. A colonoscopy is regularly used to look at all the colon and either locate or exclude the presence of any tumors. This physician failed to dor any of this.

By: J. Hernandez

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. You can learn more about cases involving colon cancer metastasis and other cancer matters including breast cancer metastasis by visiting the websites