Man Learns He Has Metastatic Colon Cancer Despite Doctor Knowing His Symptoms For Years

There are times when colon cancers bleed

There are times when colon cancers bleed. Under some circumstances, the blood might show up in the stool. IN those circumstances in which the cancer is in the vicinity of the rectum, the blood might even show up as bright red. Even when the blood cannot be seen, the bleeding may be detectable in other ways. For example, the loss of blood may appear as anemia. Blood tests might show internal loss of blood that may be the result of cancer in the colon. Some blood tests results, such as hemoglobin, hematocrit, and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) levels test for whether the person has blood loss and anemia. Any time someone has levels that are below normal levels for these tests physicians commonly agree that there should be follow up to find out the reason for the blood loss, like the possibility of cancer of the colon.

Consider the situation of a 64 year old man whose blood tests showed all of the above. The following year, the individual's blood work found a worsening of the individual's condition. Additionally, the man's stools were discovered to be positive for blood. Without any further testing, the man's doctor inserted a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the person's record. Moreover, the man's PSA level (a test that is used to screen males for prostate cancer) was a 10.3 (a level above a 4.0 is often deemed high and suggestive of possible prostate cancer). The physician did not put any report in the person's chart to indicate an examination of the prostate. The doctor failed to relay to him about the high PSA levels and did not refer him to a specialist.

Around two years later the person went to another physician. Given the man's age this physician ordered a barium enema. The result: a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. The person died of metastatic colon cancer less than three years following his diagnosis. The person's family initiated a lawsuit against the doctor who ignored the patient's abnormally low blood test results and overlooked the existence of blood in the man's stool. The law firm that handled the lawsuit reported a settlement in the case in the amount of $1,250,000

Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test outcomes are indicators that there might be something wrong, maybe even severely wrong with the patient and call for follow up. At times follow up means repeating the blood test in just a brief amount of time to determine if the levels improve but when the levels deviate enough from normal levels or continue to worsen, physicians normally concur that this raises the importance of ordering appropriate supplemental tests to determine the reason behind those levels. Physicians also typically acknowledge that blood in the stool of an adult individual mandates fast attention to rule out colon cancer as the reason. A colonoscopy is most frequently ordered to examine the whole colon and either locate or exclude the presence of any tumors. This doctor did none of this.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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