subject: Why A Diagnosis Of Advanced Prostate Cancer Could End Up In A Malpractice Case [print this page] Why A Diagnosis Of Advanced Prostate Cancer Could End Up In A Malpractice Case
Envision discovering that you have prostate cancer. That's difficult because "cancer" is a word that engenders fear of pain, fear of the treatment, and fear of death. However maybe, you tell yourself, maybe it is not that bad. Maybe we detected it before it spread and with proper treatment I'll beat it.
Still it gets worse. Envision then discovering that is too late for that. The cancer is alreaddy outside the prostate and has reached other areas of your body. A cure is therefore no longer a possibility. The best you can hope for is treatment that will slow down the disease. And later, after that treatment no longer works, treatment that will lessen the pain from the ever growing cancer.
Perhaps you ask yourself, "Why me?" "Was it merely poor luck?" And then you may ask "How could this have been avoided?" "Was there anything I might have changed that would have prevented what now is an incurable disease?"
But it does not end there. Imagine now figuring out that your doctor, the individual you trusted to maintain you healthy and to alert you of any possible health problems, had information that you were likely to develop prostate cancer. Think about discovering that your physician had this information for at least a year before you were told you had cancer. And picture finding out that if your physician had given you this information when it was first available your cancer could have been discovered while it was still contained within the prostate gland and could have been cured, could have been eliminated with proper treatment.
Do you think that this could not happen to you? Then consider the following instances:
In one reported case, a male patient was seen by his doctor, an internist, for three years during which time the doctor ordered PSA blood tests that revealed elevated levels (a sign that the patient might have prostate cancer and which physicians normally agree ought to be followed by a biopsy). The physician, however, did not discuss the abnormal test results to the patient. When the patient finally was told about the abnormal result and had a full cancer workup it was revealed that it was too late as he now had advanced prostate cancer. The law firm that handled this matter published that the resulting lawsuit settled for $600,000.
In the second documented lawsuit, the patient was not only not informed that a series of PSA tests recorded levels that were both abnormal and rising, yet instead was informed by his physician that the results were normal. When the patient later consulted a urologist at the urging of his family, he was found to have advanced prostate cancer as the cancer had already reached the seminal vesicles. The law firm that handled this matter announced that the was was resolved for a $1,500,000 settlement.
Scenarios like the above happen all too frequently. Whether the physicians do not check the results of the tests, whether they take the position 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 simply do not understand the guidelines and the standard of care for the action that is appropriate when screening results are abnormal, these physicians cause a delay that results in the growth and spread of the cancer.
Imagine being the patient who received that news. You would likely fight the cancer as hard and as long as you can. 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.
Maybe you would decide to bring a lawsuit for medical malpractice to protect your family's future. And you might hope that if forced to deal with the error and to pay a cost for it, possibly, just possibly, the doctor will adjust how he or she treats other patients in the future so that this tragedy will never arise again.
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