Diagnosed With Advanced Colon Cancer? Did Your Doctor Cause A Delay In Diagnosing You?
Delayed diagnosis lawsuits often occur within the context of cancer. Consider advanced colon cancer. A common issue that a cancer lawyer is often consulted on deals with to physicians dismissing patient complaints of blood in the stool as being caused by hemorrhoids without ever doing any testing. Among the other most often seen delayed diagnosis situations involve advanced breast cancer, advanced prostate cancer and advanced colon cancer. Let’s, however, maintain focus on colon cancer.
Typically, physicians recommend that in case a patient present with blood in the stool that a colonoscopy is appropriate to ascertain whether the patient has colon cancer or the blood is caused by something else. The colonoscopy is a procedure that helps determine whether the blood is the result of colon cancer or something else such as hemorrhoids. However solely concluding that the blood is caused by hemorrhoids, without performing appropriate tests, risks not detecting a cancer.
If the patient with rectal bleeding undergoes a colonoscopy and the cancer is discovered before it it has enough time to reach the lymph nodes or migrate to other organs, the cancer can, in many cases, be eradicated by taking it out during the colonoscopy if it is small enough or by surgically removing the part of the colon that contains the tumor. Thus a postponement in detecting the cancer and treating the patient that is long enough to allow the cancer to reach an advanced stage will require that the patient go through additional or further treatments and markedly reduces the chance that the patient will survive the cancer. time passes before the patient is diagnosed the cancer will advanced to a late stage. Once the cancer reaches a late stage the patient has less treatment options and is more likely to die due to cancer.
To figure out whether you might have a medical malpractice claim against a physician or other health care provider please contact a medical negligence attorney. The above is meant neither as medical advice nor legal advice. Please consult with a doctor about any health issues and before taking any medical advice. Please consult an attorney regarding any possible legal claim.