Year Old Patient Dies After Physician Ignores Indications Of Colon

Year Old Patient Dies After Physician Ignores Indications Of Colon Cancer And Triggers Lawsuit

At some point in their lives many adults will come across either blood in their stool or rectal bleeding. Many people and even many physicians would instantly attribute tihs to hemorrhoids. But there's another possibility and that is colon cancer One of these, mainly hemorrhoids, might affect your lifestyle but the other, colon cancer, can be terminal.

In the event that a patient presents with complaints of rectal bleeding a diagnosis of hemorrhoids, without first doing appropriate tests to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer, can be fatal. Look at the allegations that were made in the following documented matter.

In this case a female patient complains of blood in the stool to her doctor. The woman was in her late thirties at the time. In order to verify the presence of blood in the stool the physician had the patient take samples over the course of a few days for analysis. When the specimen was analyzed the presence of blood was confirmed. The physician then conducted a physical examination of the patient's rectum. No testing was ordered to eliminate the possibility that she might have colon cancer. Specifically the physician did not order a colonoscopy. All this despite the fact that the patient had in an earlier session told the physician that her father had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Most doctors would concur that individuals whose parent has been diagnosed with colon cancer are at an increased risk and ought to be tested for it earlier than individuals without any risk factors. The physician found a small hemorrhoid and concluded that that was the cause of the blood in the stools.

The patient went to the same doctor over six times during the following year and two months. Despite the fact that the woman had no additional complaints during this time she then revealed once more seeing blood in her stool. Moreover, she also now had both constipation as well as abdominal pain. The doctor simply repeated the same physical examination of the patients rectum and noted the presence of a hemorrhoid again. And so once again the doctor assured her that her problems were due to the hemorrhoid.

After 9 months and 6 more visits the woman was complaining not only of pain but also diarrhea, cramping, and loose stool. This time the doctor failed to even examine her rectum again. The physician just stuck to the original diagnosis and once again informed her that her problems were all due to the hemorrhoid. When the woman returned two weeks later her primary care physician was not present and the doctor who was covering found no hemorrhoids but observed dark blood showing up on physical examination of the rectum. She was immediately referred to a gastroenterologist for a colonoscopy which revealed that she had cancer of the colon. Additional testing found that the cancer was stage IV. The woman passed away only two months afterwards.

The law firm that represented her family, including her 2 young children, was able to report a settlement of the ensuing lawsuit in the sum of $1.8 million.

The law firm in all likelihood had the support of medical experts who were of the opinion that the 2 main hurdles in a medical malpractice lawsuit could be established. The first being that by not referring the woman for a colonoscopy or an expert like a gastroenterologist her primary care physician failed to meet the standard of care. The second being that if a referral to a gastroenterologist or a colonoscopy been made as soon as the woman began telling the doctor she was seeing blood in her stools her cancer would have been identified at a much earlier stage when treatment would have led to a cure.

This case demonstrates a number of important issues. Physicians generally concur that individuals with a parent diagnosed with colon cancer are typically tested at a younger age than that recommended for otherwise asymptomatic individuals. This female patient not only had such a family history but she was not asymptomatic. She started out by having blood in the stool which is one of the possible symptoms of colon cancer and later exhibited others. However without doing any tests for colon cancer this physician became locked into a singular diagnosis - a diagnosis that was wrong and ultimately concluded in the woman's death. By insisting that the symptoms were from hemorrhoids without testing for colon cancer this physician held up the woman's diagnosis and because of this the cancer metastasized and killed the woman. This matter will hopefully serve to educate doctors about the care provided to individuals in similar circumstances.

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