$600,000 Settlement After Doctor Did Not Inform Patient Tests Showed Chance Of Prostate Cancer

Men often have a bad knowledge of prostate cancer

, their own chances for the cancer, and how to determine whether they have prostate cancer. Many men have minimal, if any, knowledge of the value of testing for prostate cancer or of the guidelines for when they should start screening, how often to test, and the meaning of screening test results. These men just place their faith in their physician to tell them what they should do to stay healthy.

There are several different factors that might result in a delayed diagnosis. One common type of medical mistake that forms the basis for these cases occurs when the male patients primary care physician (1) orders a PSA blood test, (2) discovers that the individual has an elevated PSA level, yet (3) neither tells the patient about the abnormal results (and what they signify) nor orders diagnostic tests, for example a biopsy, to exclude prostate cancer. The lawsuit below is an example of this problem.

In this reported lawsuit a male patient found out he had prostate cancer after he followed up when advised by his internist that he most likely had cancer. The problem in this case was that the internist did not tell the patient that he could have cancer until the third year of raised PSA test results. The year before the man's PSA level had risen to 13.6. Two years prior to that it had been at 8.0 During these years the doctor took no action to rule out prostate cancer as the cause of these high readings and did not inform the patient. Additional testing revealed that by now he had advanced prostate cancer. A prostatectomy was now not a choice. Treating doctors instead advised radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Neither of these would cure the cancer but they might obstruct the cancers advancement and additional spread. The law firm that handled this matter reported that they took the case to mediation where they achieved a settlement of $600,000.

When they do not do anything when the tests indicate the possiblity of cancer and the patient subsequently finds out that he had prostate cancer and that the wait resulted in it growing outside the prostate thereby limiting treatment alternatives and lessening his likelihood of surviving the cancer, the man might have a lawsuit for medical malpractice against the physician.

This case illustrates a kind of error that can result in the delayed diagnosis of a patients prostate cancer. It happens when the physician actually follows the guidelines and screens male patients for prostate cancer however does not follow through when the test results are abnormal.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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