subject: Passing Away Of Female Whose Physican Held Up Diagnosis Of Her Colon Cancer Lead To $950,000 Settlem [print this page] The appropriateness of screening asymptomatic patients for colon cancer when they are fifty or older and for testing men and women who exhibit certain symptoms like blood in the stool is commonly recognized within the medical community. Not doing so might lead to a holdup in the detection of colon cancer which in turn might give the cancer time to spread to other organs. Below we study a published lawsuit involving a woman over the age of 50 whose doctors did not just fail to screen her at the point she was asymptomatic they also did not test her even after she developed a number of symptoms.
In this case a female treated with a primary care physician starting when she turned fifty until she was fifty five years old. In that period of time her medical history included obesity, a hernia and hypertension. At no time however did her doctor ever do screening for colon cancer.She started experiencing various symptoms vomiting and bloody stool diarrhea when she was 55 years old She took herself to the ER where a doctor told her that her problems were due to gastroenteritis. She followed up with her physician a few days afterward who made a note of the fact that she now had up to 3 bowel movements a day all of which had a blood. The physician failed to consider that she might have colon cancer and just decided that she had colitis. Consequently the physician advised her that there was no need for any immediate action and that a lower endoscopy may be needed if her symptoms did not improve. A year later she again saw this medical doctor and reported having abdominal issues and as much as sixty pounds of unexplained weight loss. The doctor concluded that her weight-loss was caused by a change in her diet and regardless that she had a background of blood in her stools that doctor still did not do any tests to eliminate colon cancer as the cause.
A month afterward she again went to the hospital with complaints of abdominal pain and continuing diarrhea and she was seeing blood present every time she vomited. There was also a change in the color of her stool which had become dark brown. Lab analysis of a stool sample showed that there was blood in the stool.. The physician at the ER diagnosed her as having a gastrointestinal bleeding. The physician from the emergency room ordered an x-ray which revealed a partial obstruction of the bowel. Following this finding the doctor admitted her to the hospital. Blood tests then uncovered that her CEA, a marker for colon cancer, was abnormally high.Initially a gastroenterologist did an upper G.I. endoscopy and got several biopsies. This gastroenterologist also failed to do a colonoscopy. It was only late when a covering physician at the hospital noted that her history was suggestive of cancer and that additional testing was required that a sigmoidoscopy was ultimately done about 2 weeks later. The sigmoidoscopy revealed a large blockage and a follow-up CAT scan showed a large tumor. When she underwent surgery it was found that her cancer had already spread to both her uterus as well as her bladder. Moreover the pathology report indicated the presence of cancer in more than 10 lymph nodes. The diagnosis - stage IV colon cancer.
She began a chemotherapy protocol and after developing an intolerance for the chemotherapy along with bowel obstructions and even renal failure, the woman lost her battle with the cancer within a year of her diagnosis. She was merely fifty eight years old. She was married and had two children both of whom were adults. Her husband and children filed a claim against the physicians for the delay in the diagnosis of the cancer. The law firm that represented the family in this matter published a settlement in the matter for $950,000 on behalf of the family.
by: Joseph Hernandez
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