When Physicians Fail To Diagnose Prostate Cancer Until It Spreads
What would you do if you discovered that you had prostate cancer
? How would you react if you then also found out that the cancer had already spread beyond the prostate rendering it, at the current time, not curable? And how would you react if you then learned that your doctor either did not correctly monitor you for prostate cancer or disregarded abnormal test results that could have led to finding your cancer when before it had spread, at a time when it was still curable?
Do you assume such a thing will never happen to you? Then consider the matters below:
In one reported case, a man was followed by his doctor, an internist, for three yearsThroughout this period the physician ordered PSA blood tests that revealed elevated levels (a sign that the patient might have prostate cancer and which physicians typically concur ought to be followed by a biopsy). The internist, however, failed to reveal the abnormal test results to the patient. When the patient finally learned about the abnormal result and had a full cancer workup it was discovered that it was too late as he now had advanced prostate cancer. The law firm that handled this matter published that the resulting malpractice claim settled for $600,000.
In the second reported lawsuit, the patient was not only not informed that a series of PSA tests showed levels that were elevated and getting worse, yet instead was told by his doctor that the results were normal. When the patient eventually went to a urologist at the urging of his family, he was found to have advanced prostate cancer as the cancer had already spread to the seminal vesicles. The law firm that handled this matter reported that the was was resolved for a $1,500,000 settlement.
Matters like the preceding take place all too frequently. Whether the doctors fail to review the results of the tests, whether they buy into the believe that there is no need to take action even though the PSA is elevated or a nodule of a certain size is detected in the prostate, or whether they just do not accept the guidelines and the standard of care for the action that is appropriate when screening results are abnormal, these physicians are responsible a delay that brings about the growth and spread of the cancer.
What if you were the patient who got that news. You fight the cancer as hard and as long as you can. What if you were his spouse, his child, his parent? You would help him fight the cancer and you offer him all the love and support you had to give.
Maybe you would choose to bring a claim for medical malpractice to help protect your familys future. And you might hope that if forced to confront the mistake and to incur a cost for it, maybe, just maybe, the doctor will change how he or she treats other patients subsequently so that this tragedy will not occur again.
by: Joseph Hernandez
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