Doctor Settles For $1,250,000 For Death Of Patient From Advanced Colon Cancer

In a number of cases colon cancers bleed. In certain cases, the blood might show up in the stool. IN those circumstances in which the cancer is near the rectum, the blood might even show up as bright red. Even though the blood cannot be seen, it may nonetheless be possible to determine that the person is bleeding in other ways. For instance, the loss of blood may manifest as anemia. Blood tests may reveal internal loss of blood that may be the result of a tumor in the colon. The main blood test results to evaluate are the hemoglobin, hematocrit, and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) levels. Low levels might indicate blood loss and iron deficiency anemia. Any time an inidividual presents with levels that are low for these tests doctors commonly concur that there ought to be additional testing to determine the cause of the blood loss, like the chance of cancer of the colon.

Consider the matter of a sixty four year old man whose blood tests revealed all of the above. The next year, the man's blood work revealed a worsening of the individual's condition. Furthermore, the man's stools were found to contain blood. Yet, doing no additional testing or sending the man to a specialist the person's physician added a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the man's chart. Also, the individual'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 often viewed as high and troubling for prostate cancer). The physician did not put any report in the person's chart to document an having examined the gland. The doctor did not tell the individual about the high PSA levels and did not refer him to a specialist.

Around 2 years after the patient went to another doctor. Because of the man's age this doctor 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 following his diagnosis. The patient's family pursued a lawsuit against the physician who ignored the patient's abnormally low blood test results and overlooked the presence of blood in the man's stool. The law firm that handled the case reported a settlement in the amount of $1,250,000

Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test results are indicators that there may be something wrong, possibly severely wrong with the patient and call for follow up. At times follow up includes repeating the blood test within a short amount of time to see if the levels improve but when the levels are sufficiently above or below normal levels or continue to worsen, doctors generally concur that this raises the importance of ordering appropriate supplemental tests to determine the explanation for those levels. Doctors also usually consent that blood in the stool of an adult individual mandates immediate attention to rule out colon cancer as the reason. A colonoscopy is often used to look at the entire colon and either locate or rule out the presence of any tumors. This physician did none of this.

Even though settlements usually include no without any admission of liability by defendants it is not surprising that the law firm that worked on this case reported such a considerable settlement.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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