$1,800,000 Settlement Due To Patient Passing Away Of Colon Cancer Metastasis
Have you noticed blood in your stool? Did you ignore it? Did you believe it was just hemorrhoids? Did you tell your doctor about it? Did your doctor conclude it was merely hemorrhoids? Did you or your doctor ever think that it could be colon cancer? Hemorrhoids may be uncomfortable but are not life-threatening. Colon cancer though can kill you. In the event that a patient has rectal bleeding a diagnosis of hemorrhoids, without first performing appropriate tests to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer, might be fatal. Consider the allegations that were made in the following published 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. The physician sends her home with a kit for her to take samples of her stool over a three-day period. She returns the material which is examined and found to reveal the presence of occult blood in the stools. The physician then conducted a physical examination of the patient's rectum. No testing was ordered to remove the chance that she might have colon cancer. Specifically the physician did not order a colonoscopy. All this even though the fact that the patient had in an earlier session told the doctor 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 a higher risk and ought to be tested for it earlier than individuals without any risk factors. The examination divulged the presence of a hemorrhoid to which the physician attributed the bleeding. He assured the patient that the bleeding was coming from the hemorrhoid.
In the following 14 months the female patient continued to be seen by this doctor. She had at least 6 appointments throughout that period. At the conclusion of that time period the patient once again complained of blood in the stool. Plus, she started experiencing both constipation along with abdominal pain. The doctor simply repeated the same physical examination of the patient