What Would You Do If You Discovered Your Doctor Delayed The Diagnosis Of Your Prostate Cancer?

What would you do if you found out you had prostate cancer

? What would you do if you then also found out that the cancer had already spread beyond the prostate making it, at the current time, not curable? And what would you do if you then learned that your doctor either failed to properly screen you for prostate cancer or ignored abnormal results of screening tests that could have helped diagnose your cancer when it was still confined to the prostate and was still curable?

Do you think this could never happen to you? Consider what happened to the men involved in the following cases:

In the first reported case, a male patient was seen by his doctor, an internist, for 3 years during which time the ordered PSA blood tests that revealed elevated levels (a sign that the patient might have prostate cancer and which doctors generally agree should be followed by a biopsy). The internist, however, did not reveal the abnormal test results to his patient. When the patient eventually found out and underwent a full cancer workup it was discovered that it was too late as he now had advanced prostate cancer. The law firm that represented the patient in this matter reported that the resulting lawsuit settled for $600,000.

In the second reported case, the male patient was not only not informed that a series of PSA tests showed levels that were both abnormal and rising, but instead was told by his physician that the results were normal. When the patient later consulted with a urologist at the urging of his family, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as the cancer had already reached the seminal vesicles. The law firm that represented the patient in this matter reported that the resulting lawsuit settled for $1.5 Million.

Far too many men find themselves in situations just like the above. 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 advise them against it. Other physicians do not review the results of screening tests. Yet other physicians 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 avoidable death from a cancer that could have been cured if diagnosed while in the early stages.

What if you were the patient who received such news? You would fight the cancer as hard and as long as you could. What if you were his spouse? What if you were his child? What if the patient was your son? You would help him fight the cancer and you offer him all the love and support you had to give.

Perhaps you would also decide to bring a claim for medical malpractice to help protect your family's future. And you might hope that if forced to confront the error and to incur a cost for it, possibly, just possibly, the physician would change the way he or she treats other patients in the future so that this tragedy will never happen again.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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