Diagnosed With Advanced Colon Cancer? Did Your Physician Fail To Timely Diagnose You?
Delayed diagnosis claims often come up within the context of cancer. Take for example advanced colon cancer. A frequently seen 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. Some of the other most often seen delayed diagnosis situations involve advanced breast cancer, advanced prostate cancer and advanced colon cancer. Let’s, however, for now just consider colon cancer.
One pattern that goes on far too commonly includes a physician indicating to a patient with complaints of blood in the stool that the patient just suffers from hemorrhoids and there is nothing to fret about. Yet, the blood is really because of colon cancer all along. What legal options does the patient have under these circumstances?
Typically, doctors recommend that in case a patient complains of blood in the stool that a colonoscopy is called for to figure out if 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 consequence of colon cancer or something else such as hemorrhoids. But just supposing that the blood is a result of hemorrhoids, without performing appropriate tests, risks not finding a cancer.
If appropriate tests (such as a colonoscopy) are performed as soon as the patient exhibits symptoms consistent with colon cancer it may be possible to find the cancer before it reaches an advanced stage. Early detection generally means that the cancer can be removed surgically (or maybe even wtih a colonoscopy) and the patient may not require chemotherapy. Early detection also usually means that there is a much reduced possibility that the patient will die from the cancer. So a postponement in diagnosing the cancer and treating the patient that is sufficient to allow the cancer to reach an advanced stage will require that the patient undergo additional or further treatments and significantly lowers the probability that the patient will survive the cancer.When sufficient time passes before the patient is diagnosed the cancer will advanced to a late stage. When the cancer reaches a late stage the patient has less treatment options and is more likely to die from the cancer.
To figure out whether you may 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. Make sure you consult with a doctor about any health issues and before taking any medical advice. Consult with an attorney concerning any potential legal claim.
