Woman Recovers $875,000 From Physician For The Delayed Diagnosis Of Her Colon Cancer

Men and women with a family background of colon cancer as well as men and women who have symptoms are at greater risk of getting colon cancer. If someone both has a family history and also has complaints of symptoms including rectal bleeding, doctors generally acknowledge that a colonoscopy is required so as to check if the individual has colon cancer or rule it out. Normally, doctors advise that even those who are not at greater risk nevertheless get screened starting at age fifty. Screening is frequently done by the use of a colonoscopy.

However for the results of a colonoscopy to be reliable it needs to be complete. It needs to cover the entire extent of the colon. When obstructions or poor preparation render incomplete visualization of parts of the colon, the person ought to be informed and the doctor should advise the patient that the colonoscopy ought to be done again or a different option, for instance a virtual colonoscopy, be considered. Not doing so may be responsible for an overlooked tumor which could metastasize before it is discovered.

Consider, for example, one reported claim about a fifty-four year old female who died from metastatic colon cancer. Consider her medical history. She had a family history of colon cancer. She had 3 colonoscopies over six years. During that period, she reported that she suffered rectal bleeding and abdominal pain many times. At least one time the woman's blood tests additionally showed that she was anemic. The 3 are potential symptoms of colon cancer.

The documentation from 2 of the colonoscopies revealed that the visualization was weak of the ascending colon and cecum as it was not possible to take the scope further than the transverse colon. However, the doctor who carried out the 3 colonoscopies and followed her throughout this period kept telling her that her problems were a consequence of hemorrhoids.

The Patient was ultimately diagnosed with colon cancer when her tumor was detected while she was undergoing exploratory surgery so as to determine the reson for her symptoms. A considerable portion of her intestines was taken out due to the cancer. The patient was also treated with chemotherapy but the woman ultimately passed away from the cancer. Due to the physician's failure to order additional testing to determine the source of her symptoms given that there were 2 incomplete colonoscopies the woman’s surviving family pursued a claim. The law firm that represented the family in this matter was able to report that they recovered $875,000 for the family.

Doctors use diagnostic tests to find or exclude particular diseases. For instance, the colonoscopy is a procedure employed to find or rule out colon cancer. Yet the test is only as good as the accuracy with which the test was conducted. For the procedure a physician inserts a scope to visualize the interior of the colon in order to determine if there are polyps or tumors in the colon{.|

}In the event that the full colon is not visualized, as in the lawsuit previously mentioned, a physician should not rely 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. If the patient does have cancer this might lead to a delay in diagnosis that allows the cancer time to grow and progress to an uncurable stage. Under such circumstances the physician who relied on an incomplete outcome might be liable under a medical malpractice claim.

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Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. To learn more about advanced colon cancer cases request a free consultation with a cancer attorney at the website

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