Ways In Which Medical Malpractice Claim Might Arise Out Of Delayed Diagnosis Of Colon Cancer

Even the thought that one might have colon cancer tends to bring up dread in the majority of us

. It can therefore feel very reassuring to have your physician tell you that you simply have hemorrhoids. That there is no need to worry about the blood in your stool. Yet this reassurance ought to only come after the doctor has ruled out the likelihood of colon cancer (and other possibly dangerous gastrointestinal issues). Otherwise, you may not learn that you have colon cancer before it is too late. Should a doctor decide without testing assumes that complaints of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding by a patient are due to hemorrhoids and it later turns out to be colon cancer, that doctor might not have met the standard of care. Under those circimstances, the patient may be able to pursue a lawsuit against that doctor.

It is projected that there are presently over 10 million people with hemorrhoids. An additional 1,000,000 new cases of hemorrhoids will probably occur this year as opposed to a little more than the 100 thousand new instances of colon cancer that will be detected . Further, not all colon cancers bleed. If they do, the bleeding could be non-consistent. And based on where the cancer is in the colon, the blood might not actually be apparent in the stool. Possibly it is in part because of the difference in the volume of cases being identified that a number of doctors just assume that the presence of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is because of hemorrhoids. This is gambling, pure and simple. A physician who reaches this conclusion will be correct greater than 90% of the time. It appears reasonable, right? The difficulty, however, is that if the doctor is wrong in this diagnosis, the patient may not discover he or she has colon cancer before it has developed to a late stage, maybe to where it is no longer treatable.

This is why doctors generally advise that a colonoscopy should be done right away if someone complains of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding. A colonoscopy is a procedure whereby a flexible tube with a camera on the end is employed to examine the inside of the colon. If growths (polyps or tumors) are discovered, they can be taken out (if sufficiently small) or sampled and tested for the existence of cancer (by biopsy). Only if no cancer is discovered from the colonoscopy may colon cancer be ruled out as a source of the blood.

By telling the patient that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding as caused by hemorrhoids while not conducting the appropriate tests to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer, a doctor puts the patient at risk of not knowing that the patient colon cancer until it reaches an advanced, possibly untreatable, stage. This may constitute a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and might lead to a malpractice claim.

If you or a family member were told by a doctor that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding were due to only hemorrhoids, and have since been diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer, you should speak to a lawyer immediately. This article is for basic educational usage only and is not intended to be legal (or medical) advice. For any medical concerns you should consult with a physician. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information in this article but ought to rather consult with an attorney. A competent lawyer with experience in medical malpractice might be able to help you determine if you have a claim for a delay in the diagnosis of the colon cancer. Immediately consult with a lawyer are there is a time limit in claims like these.

by:Joseph Hernandez

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