Several Physicians With Knowledge Of Patient's Symptoms Take Years To Diagnose His Prostate Cancer

Whenever a number of physicians become involved in the treatment of a patient it

can become very important for them to relay urgent diagnostic results as well as follow-up and treatment suggestions to the patient and to the other physicians. The need for such communication is not necessarily negated just because the patient fails to go back to any of the physicians. Consequently in the event that a doctor has information or reaches a diagnosis that the patient needs immediate follow up or treatment it is crucial for that doctor to communicate that to the patient and possibly also at least the patient's primary care physician.

Consider the following reported case. Several physicians had an opportunity to detect the male patients prostate cancer The individual first saw his primary care physician (PCP), a general practitioner, with complaints of urinary problems at 56 years old age. The family doctor concluded that the problems were not related to cancer although no testing was done to rule out cancer.

The patient, on his own, went to a urologist ten months later. The urologist conducted a physical examination of the prostate and ordered a PSA blood test. The patient then discovered that the urologist was not approved by his insurance and he saw a different urologist who was approved. The PSA test by the first urologist came back and that urologist advised a biopsy. Unfortunately, that recommendation apparently did not get related to the PCP or the urologist approved by the insurance company. The second urologist decided that the examination of the prostate was normal and that there was no evidence of cancer.

It took another two years when the patients prostate cancer was ultimately detected. By that point, the cancer had spread beyond the prostate and was now advanced. Had the cancer been diagnosed when the patient first complained of urinary problems, when he saw the first urologist, or even when the second urologist failed to find any abnormalities with his prostate and failed to order a PSA test, it would have still been contained in the prostate and, with treatment, the patient could have had approximately 97% likelihood of surviving the cancer. Since the cancer was already advanced at the time of diagnosis, however, the patient was likely to die from the cancer in fewer than five years. The law firm that handled this case reported that they were able to obtain a settlement during jury selection at trial for $2,500,000 on behalf of the patient.

This lawsuit thus shows two key types of failures. There was the failure on the part of the general practitioner and the second urologist to not follow the proper screening guidelines. Additionally there was the failure of communication among the several physicians. If the patient had been able to stay with the unapproved urologist the patient would have known that he might have cancer and that a follow up biopsy was appropriate. If the other physicians would have agreed with that recommendation or would have passed this information to the patient if they had received it is unknown but then the error would have been entirely theirs.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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