subject: Person With Advanced Colon Cancer Despite Symptoms Known To Physician [print this page] In a number of situations colon cancers bleedIn a number of situations colon cancers bleed. Occasionally, the blood might be visible in the stool. In cases where the cancer is in the vicinity of the rectum, the blood may even show up as bright red. Even when the blood is not visible, it might nonetheless be possible to discover that the patient is bleeding in other ways. For example, the loss of blood might appear as anemia. Blood tests may disclose internal loss of blood that may be due to a tumor in the colon. Important blood test results to check are the hemoglobin, hematocrit, and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) levels. Levels below the normal range may signal blood loss and iron deficiency anemia. If a patient presents with levels that are low for these tests doctors normally agree that there ought to be additional testing to determine the explanation for the blood loss, including the possibility of cancer of the colon.
Consider the situation of a 64 year old male patient whose blood tests exhibited all of the above. The next year, the patients blood work showed a deterioration of the man's condition. Furthermore, a guaiac test showed that there was blood in the patient's stool. Without any further testing or sending the person to a specialist the person's doctor entered a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the patient'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 usually regarded as 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 gland. The doctor did not relay to him about the high PSA levels and did not refer him to a specialist.
Around two years later the individual went to another physician. Given the mans age this doctor ordered a barium enema. The result: a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. The individual passed away from metastatic colon cancer within 3 years after his diagnosis. The person's family pursued a claim against the doctor who ignored the patients abnormally low blood test results and dismissed the existence of blood in the mans stool. The law firm that represented the family was able to report that it settled for $1.25 million.
Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test outcomes suggest that there might be something wrong, maybe dangerously wrong with the individual and require follow up. At times follow up includes repeating the blood test in just a short amount of time to find out if the levels return to normal but when the levels are sufficiently above or below normal levels or continue to worsen, physicians normally agree that this increases the need to order appropriate additional tests to determine the explanation for those levels. Physicians also commonly recognize that blood in the stool of an adult patient calls for immediate attention to eliminate the possibility of cancer of the colon as the reason. A colonoscopy is usually ordered to examine all the colon and either find or rule out the presence of any tumors. This physician failed to dor any of this.
Although most lawsuits that settle do so with no admission of liability by defendants it is not surprising that the law firm that handled this case reported such a substantial settlement.
