Woman Dies Following 6 Year Delay In The Diagnosis Of Her Colon Cancer Allows It To Spread

Some people are vulnerable to having or getting particular forms of cancer

. With colon cancer, for example, people with particular conditions (such as chron's disease), with particular symptoms , or with family members who have had colon cancer (especially first degree relatives) are at risk. The primary procedure used by doctors to test for colon cancer when a person has a family history or is complaining of a symptom, such as blood in the stool, is the colonoscopy. Using this procedure doctors are able to see the interior of the colon and look for the presence of abnormal (and possibly cancerous) growths. Mainly, physicians recommend that even those who are not at greater risk nevertheless get screened starting at age fifty.

But for the results of a colonoscopy to be reliable it must be complete. It needs to cover the entire length of the colon. Any time obstructions or inadequate preparation render incomplete visualization of parts of the colon, the individual ought to be advised and the doctor should recommend to the patient that the colonoscopy should be done again or a different option, for example a virtual colonoscopy, be considered. A failure to do so might result in an overlooked cancer which could grow and progress to an advanced stage before it is detected.

Examine, for instance, one reported claim about a fifty-four year old woman who died from advanced colon cancer. Look at her medical history. She had a family history of colon cancer. She had 3 colonoscopies over 6 years. On many occasions she kept letting her physicians know that she was suffering from pain in the abdomen and that she noticed blood in her stool. At a minimum, on one occasion the woman's blood work additionally recorded that she had anemia. All 3 are possible symptoms of colon cancer.

In this case, the physician who carried out the colonoscopies actually recorded, with respect to 2 of them, that visualization was incomplete in both the ascending colon and the cecum. The physician additionally documented that this was the case due to the fact that there was a problem in passing the scope beyond the transverse colon. Sill, the doctor who carried out the 3 colonoscopies and followed the patient during this time kept stating to her that her problems were a consequence of hemorrhoids.

The woman was finally diagnosed with colon cancer when her tumor was detected as she was undergoing exploratory surgery as a way to uncover the cause of her symptoms. A large part of her intestines was extracted as a consequence of cancer. Chemotherapy followed but the woman ultimately died from the cancer. Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the physician for the failure to diagnose her cancer and to tell her that the results of the colonoscopies were not definitive. The law firm that hekped the family in this case was able to publisize that they were able to achieve a recovery for the family in the amount of $875,000

Doctors employ diagnostic tests so as to detect or rule out certain diseases such as several types of cancers. For example, the colonoscopy is a procedure used to find or rule out colon cancer however the test is only as good as the reliability with which the test was conducted. For the procedure a doctor inserts a scope to see the interior of the colon so as to check if there are polyps or tumors in the colon

When the total colon is not visualized, as in the lawsuit previously mentioned, a physician should not count on it to exclude cancer. Doing so makes about as much sense as only listening to one of your lungs, examining only one of your eyes, or ordering only part of a complete blood count. Should the patient does have cancer this could bring about a delay in diagnosis that allows the cancer time to grow and progress to an incurable stage. In a situation like that the doctor who relied on such an incomplete procedure might be liable under a medical malpractice claim.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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