subject: Doctor - Order Proper Cancer Tests Or Risk A Medical Malpractice Lawsuit [print this page] Being told one has colon cancer tends to raise dread in nearly all of us. It can therefore feel highly reassuring to have your physician tell you that you simply have hemorrhoids and there is no need to be concerned about the blood in your stool. But this reassurance should not be given until the physician has eliminated the chance of colon cancer (and other potentially serious gastrointestinal problems). Otherwise, you may not discover that you have colon cancer until it is too late. Should a doctor conclude without testing considers that reports 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 physician might have committed medical malpractice. Under those circimstances, the patient may have a legal claim against that doctor.
Over 10 million men and women have hemorrhoids and another million new instances of hemorrhoids will likely occur this year. In comparison, a little over the 100 thousand new incidents of colon cancer that will be detected this year. In addition, colon cancers do not always. If they do, the bleeding might be non-consistent. Also depending on the location of the cancer in the colon, the blood might not actually be visible in the stool. Perhaps it is in part as a result of the difference in the quantity of cases being detected that some physicians basically suppose that the presence of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is from hemorrhoids. This is playing the odds. A physician making this diagnosis will be correct greater than ninety percent of the time. It sounds realistic, doesnt it? The problem, however, is that if the doctor is wrong in this diagnosis, the patient may not discover he or she has colon cancer until it has progressed to an advanced stage, perhaps even to where it is no longer treatable.
This is why physicians generally recommend that a colonoscopy ought to be ordered right away if someone has blood in the stool or rectal bleeding. A colonoscopy is a method that uses a flexible tube with a camera on the end is used to examine the interior of the colon. If growths (polyps or tumors) are discovered, they can be extracted (if sufficiently small) or sampled and examined for the presence of cancer (by biopsy). Providing no cancer is found from the colonoscopy can colon cancer be eliminated as a cause of the blood.
As a result of diagnosing complaints of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding as resulting from hemorrhoids without conducting the correct tests to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer, a doctor places the patient at risk of not learning he or she has colon cancer before it progresses to an advanced, possibly no longer treatable, stage. This might amount to a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and might bring about a medical malpractice lawsuit.
If you or a family member were assured by a doctor that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding were because of nothing more than hemorrhoids, and have since been diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer, you need to contact an attorney immediately. This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal (or medical) advice. For any medical problems you should consult with a doctor. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information contained herein but should instead seek professional legal counsel. A competent lawyer who is experienced in medical malpractice may be able to help you determine should you have a claim for a delay in the diagnosis of the colon cancer. Immediately consult with an attorney are there is a time limit in lawsuits like these.
by:Joseph Hernandez
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