Though a colonoscopy is normally recommended as a screening proceedure for colorectal cancer for people who are 50 years old and older, doctors usually acknowledge that reports of rectal bleeding by a patient warrant performing a colonoscopy irrespective of the age of the patient. If a colonoscopy or a sigmoidoscopy is actually performed, however, if poor preparation or an obstruction prevent the doctor to fully explore the area, doctors normally recommendedthat it ought to be repeated. This article considers a wrongful death lawsuit which claimed that both a family practicioner and a gastroenterologist did not follow these practices.
Think about the following situation: a woman at forty six years of age tells her primary care physician that she has been having constipation and noting rectal bleeding for over a month. The following month she tells the doctor that her problems have continued. Her doctor referred her for a sigmoidoscopy. She was seen the next month by a gastroenterologist. The gastroenterologist documented that the visit was because of bleeding and constipation. Yet, the gastroenterologist only performed a sigmoidoscopy as opposed to a colonoscopy. A sigmoidoscopy just lets the physician check up to 40 cm from the anus. While the sigmoidoscopy merely permits examination of a limited part of the colon, the physician documented that the test was not finished and that it had not been possible to examine the entire length even of the sigmoid. The gastroenterologist did not recommend that the test be done again in order to adequately visualize the sigmoid.
Five months later, the woman again saw her primary care physician for a yearly physical. She again told the doctor that she was suffering from constipation. The next year, for the third time she explained to her physician that she was having constipation. A brief time after one visit the doctor wrote down that the patient's daughter spoke to the physician about the patient and the physician suggested she eat more fiber for irritable bowel syndrome. The doctor also said to the patient's daughter that he would consider obtaining a colonoscopy at a later date.
At the conclusion of the year, the woman again informed her doctor that she continued to experience constipation. The doctor recommended she take lactulose and return in a month. When she returned as scheduled, the doctor documented that she exhibited tenderness in the lower left quadrant and that he could feel a structure consistent with stool in her colon. At this point, the doctor ordered that her TSH level (thinking her symptoms might be thyroid related) be checked and made an entry that he thought a colonoscopy might be necessary.
Roughly 2 weeks afterward, the patient had to go to the emergency room because she developed pain and vomiting as she was prepping for a colonoscopy. The emergency room physician found that she had a distended abdomen and could hear hyperactive bowel sounds. She also had abdominal tenderness, mostly on the lower left. Because of these symptoms the hospital physician ordered a CT scan. The scan highlighted a mass in the sigmoid with metastasis. After 2 weeks, she underwent surgery to take out the 4.2 cm mass. The surgeon determined that her cancer had metastasized throughout various organs. She started chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer. The woman did not survive. She died a little over four months following her surgery.
The woman's family filed a wrongful death case against the family doctor and the gastroenterologist. The law firm that handled the case achieved a settlement in the amount of $2,000,000 on behalf of the family. The law limits the time you have to file a legal claim so if a family member died of advanced cancer and you think they were the victim of medical malpractice you ought to consult with an attorney without delay to establish if you have a valid claim.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. You can learn more about cases involving advanced colon cancer and other cancers including
prostatecancer by visiting the websites
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