Male Patient Diagnosed With Advanced Prostate Cancer After 5 Years Of Symptoms And Abnormal Tests

Prostate cancer is a terrible disease

Prostate cancer is a terrible disease. While not perfect doctors use diagnostics tests to doctors to establish when a patient has the cancer. Yet as a consequence of the prospect of false negatives (a negative test outcome although the patient in reality has cancer) doctors must follow up and redo tests as appropriate when patient symptoms and screening tests continue to suggest the possibility of cancer. Not doing so may reslt in a malpractice claim.

In one reported claim a patient told his primary care doctor that he was having urinary frequency and burning. The doctor began him on antibiotics and refered the man to a urologist. The urologist performed a cystoscopy which found that the patient had an enlarged prostate. The urologist also ordered a PSA blood test which registered a 16.3 (anything over a 4.0 is generally considered to be high). Therefore the urologist took a biopsy 2 months later. The biopsy was interpreted by a pathologist as benign.

The following year the man went back to the urologist. This time the PSA blood test was a 2.9 (typically regarded as in normal range). The urologist diagnosed the patient with BPH (a noncancerous enlargement of the prostate). After 3 months the patient went to the primary care physician for fever and nocturia (having to urinate during the night). The physician started him again on antibiotics. A follow up urine culture came back negative. The primary care physician hence referred the patient back to the urologist. The urologist did a PSA test which registered a 6.4 ( high).

A biopsy examines samples of the prostate. As a result, a biopsy could not catch the cancer. However, the urologist decided to rely on the preceding years biopsy and to not do another one as a follow up. Instead, the urologist did nothing to follow up on the patient's complaints and abnormal PSA. The next year the patient went back to his primary care physician. His issues including nocturia persisted. On physical examination the doctor documented that the individual had a highly enlarged prostate. Yet, the physician failed to do another a PSA or re-refer the man to a urologist. Routine blood testing 4 months afterwards showed that the mans PSA was at 7.4 Neither doctor followed up in any way.

One more year goes by when the primary care physician recorded that the PSA level was 9.8 Again, no follow up or referral to a urologist. Still another year and the patient continues to have problems with nocturia. This time the PSA was 9.7 No follow up and no referral. On the fifth yea following the male patient's first claims of urinary problems the primary care physician once more recorded a considerably enlarged prostate gland and a PSA that had now risen to 31. The physician finally refered the patient back to the urologist.

The urologist confirmed that the patients prostate was enlarged and started the man a two week program of antibiotics to be followed by another PSA blood test. Once the PSA test was repeated 2 weeks soon after it showed a 33. A biopsy followed which uncovered cancer every sample taken.

Testing afterwards uncovered that the patient had prostate cancer which had spread to the lymph nodes, the liver and the bone. Even with a course of hormone therapy and radiation therapy the patient passed away around eighteen months subsequent to his diagnosis. The law firm that represented his family recorded that the lawsuit settled for $1,000,000.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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