Doctor May Be Liable For Medical Malpractice From Concluding Blood Is Due To Hemorrhoids And It Turns Out To Be Colon Cancer

Being told one has colon cancer tends to bring up dread in the majority of people. It can hence feel very reassuring to have your doctor tell you that you simply have hemorrhoids and there is no need to worry about the blood in your stool. But this reassurance should only come after the doctor has eliminated the possibility of colon cancer (and other potentially serious gastrointestinal problems). Else, you may not learn that you have colon cancer until it is too late. Should a physician conclude without testing assumes that reports of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding by a patient are due to hemorrhoids and it eventually is discovered that the patient had colon cancer all along, that doctor might have committed medical malpractice and the patient may have a legal claim against that physician.

In excess of 10 million people have hemorrhoids. An additional million new instances of hemorrhoids will probably arise this year. In contrast, a little over the 100 thousand new cases of colon cancer that will be identified this year. Further, not all colon cancers bleed. In the event that they do, the bleeding may be non-consistent. And based on where the cancer is in the colon, the blood might not actually be seen in the stool. Possibly it is simply as a result of the difference in the quantity of cases being diagnosed that a number of doctors simply suppose that the existence of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is from hemorrhoids. This amounts to playing the odds. A doctor making this diagnosis will be right more than ninety percent of the time. It sounds reasonable, right? The difficulty, however, is that if the doctor is wrong in this diagnosis, the patient may not discover he or she has colon cancer before it has developed to an advanced stage, perhaps even to the point where treatment is no longer effective.

When colon cancer is discovered before it metastasizes outside the colon, the individual's five year survival rate will usually be above 80%. The five year survival rate is a statistical indicator of the percentage of people who survive the disease for at least 5 years following diagnosis. Treatment protocols for early stage colon cancer generally calls for only surgery to remove the tumor and surrounding portions of the colon. Subject to factors including the stage of the cancer and the individual's medical history (including family medical history), how old the person is, and the person's physical condition, chemotherapy may or may not be recommended.

This is why doctors typically advise that a colonoscopy ought to be ordered right away if someone has blood in the stool or rectal bleeding. A colonoscopy is a procedure that uses a flexible tube with a camera on the end is used to visualize the inside of the colon. If anything is discovered in the course of the procedure, it might be possible to remove it immediately if it is not very big. In any case, it will be biopsied to check for cancer. Colon cancer might properly be eliminated as the reason for the blood providing that a colonoscopy finds no cancer

But, if the cancer is diagnosed after it has spread beyond the colon into the lymph nodes, the patient's 5 year survival rate will normally be approximately fifty three percent Aside from surgery to remove the tumor and adjacent areas of the colon treatment for this stage of colon cancer calls for chemotherapy in an effort to eliminate any cancer that might be left in the body. When the cancer reaches distant organs like the liver, lungs, or brain, the patient's five year survival rate is cut down to near eight percent. If treatment options exist for a patient at this stage, they may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other medications. Treatment might no longer be effective the moment the cancer is this advanced. When treatment ceases to be effective, colon cancer is fatal. This year, roughly 48,000 men and women will pass away in the U.S. from colon cancer metastasis.

As a result of telling the patient that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding as resulting from hemorrhoids while not conducting the correct tests to rule out colon cancer, a physician puts the patient at risk of not finding out that the patient colon cancer before it reaches an advanced, possibly untreatable, stage. This might amount to a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and may end in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

If you or a a member of your family were told by a doctor that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding were due to nothing more than hemorrhoids, and have since been diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer, you should contact an attorney without delay. This article is for basic educational purposes only and does not constitute legal (or medical) advice. For any medical issues you should seek advice from physician. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information in this article but ought to instead consult with an attorney. A competent lawyer who is experienced in medical malpractice might be able to help you determine should you have a claim for a delay in the diagnosis of the colon cancer. Do not wait to contact a lawyer are there is a time limit in lawsuits like these.

Article Source: http://physicalfitnessarticles.net

Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. For information on advanced colon cancer and other cancer cases including metastatic prostate cancer visit the website

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