subject: Physician Pays $1.25 Million To Family - Patient Died After Multi Year Delay In Cancer Detection [print this page] In some cases colon cancers bleedIn some cases colon cancers bleed. In certain cases, the blood might be visible in the stool. IN those circumstances in which the cancer is near the rectum, the blood could even show up as bright red. Even though the blood cannot be seen, the bleeding may still be detectable in other ways. For instance, the loss of blood might appear as anemia. Blood tests may show internal loss of blood that could be the result of cancer in the colon. Certain key blood levels below the normal range may mean blood loss and iron deficiency anemia. When an individual has levels that are below normal levels for these tests doctors generally recognize that there ought to be follow up to determine the reason for the blood loss, such as the prospect of cancer of the colon.
Consider the situation of a sixty four year old male patient whose blood tests revealed all of the above. The next year, the individual's blood work found a deterioration of the patient's problem. Furthermore, the man's stools were found to be positive for blood. Without any further testing, the person's physician inserted a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the patient's chart. Also, the man's PSA level (a test that is used to screen males for prostate cancer) was a 10.3 (anything above a 4.0 is generally viewed as high and worrisome for prostate cancer). The physician did not put any report in the patient's chart to document an examination of the prostate. The physician did not tell the individual about the high PSA levels and failed to refer the individual to a specialist.
Around 2 years after the individual went to another physician. Given the patient's age this physician had him undergo a barium enema. The result: a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. The patient died of metastatic colon cancer not even three years after his diagnosis. The person's family initiated a claim against the doctor who overlooked the patient's abnormally low blood test results and ignored the presence of blood in the man's stool. The law firm that handled the case was able to report that it settled for $1.25 million.
Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test results suggest that something may be wrong, possibly even severely wrong with the patient and call for follow up. Sometimes follow up means repeating the blood test in just a short amount of time to see whether the levels return to normal. Yet if the levels are sufficiently above or below normal levels or keep getting worse, doctors normally recognize that this increases the importance of ordering appropriate supplemental tests to determine the explanation for those levels. Doctors also typically consent that blood in the stool of an adult person mandates fast attention to eliminate the possibility of cancer of the colon as the cause. A colonoscopy is normally used to look at the entire colon and either locate or exclude the presence of any tumors. This doctor did not do any of this.
