$2.75 Million For Patient Whose Physician Failed to Carry Out His Request For Prostate Cancer Testing

Prostate cancer affects African-American males earlier and frequently more aggressively than the rest of the population. Males of African-American descent are at greater risk of having prostate cancer at an earlier age. For this reason, physicians generally concur that doctors should go over prostate cancer screening with men of African-American descent once he turns forty-five. By starting earlier with African-American men screening has the potential of allowing for the detection of the cancer at an earlier and hopefully curable stage. In cases where physicians fail to follow the guidelines for cancer screening and the individual is subsequently diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer that physician might be liable for malpractice.

But beyond the guidelines, it may also be malpractice if a patient specifically ask for screening for a given cancer and the physician fails to do so. Consider the reported case of a forty one year-old African-American male who had been involved in an ad campaign meant to raise awareness over the risk of prostate cancer in middle-aged males of African-American descent requested that his doctor screen him for the cancer.

The doctor completed a digital examination and identified no abnormalities. The doctor ordered blood tests for the patient yet failed to include a request for a PSA test. The patient figured a PSA test was ordered and simply assumed that there were no abnormal results when he did not hear anything further about it. The patient was seen again by the same doctor 2 years afterward. This time the physician did not perform a physical examination of the prostate and again did not order a PSA test.

What this physician did was to leave the man with a false sense of security. By doing the digital examination of the prostate and ordering blood tests the physician gave the man the perception that the physician had conducted a full screening. Without doubt the patient believed that the lack of any communication about the results to mean that the results must have been normal. This put him at ease with respect to whatever worries prompted him to ask for the testing.

Subsequently that year the patient saw a different doctor in the same practice. This time the physician not only performed a digital examination but also ordered a PSA test. The patient was diagnosed with prostate cancer with bone metastasis. Even though the guidelines typically suggest that African-American males be at least advised about screening for prostate cancer commencing when they reach age forty-five, which this patient was now turning, in this scenario the patient had specifically asked to be tested prior to that age.

The law firm that handled this matter took it to trial and achieved a $2.75 Million verdict. The defense appealed and the parties settled for a confidential amount as the appeals was pending. Although the amount of the settlement was confidential it was less than the amount of the verdict. This is not an unusual way for both parties to reduce the risk of an adverse ruling by the Appeals Court. In this case the Appeals Court subsequently denied the appeal.