By: Joseph Hernandez
In a number of situations colon cancers bleed. Under some circumstances, the blood may be visible in the stool. When the cancer is in the vicinity of the rectum, the blood could even surface as bright red. Even though the blood cannot be seen, the bleeding may still be detectible in other ways. As an example, the loss of blood might manifest as anemia. Blood tests might disclose internal blood loss that could be from a tumor in the colon. The main blood test results to check are the hemoglobin, hematocrit, and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) levels. Levels below the normal range may suggest blood loss and iron deficiency anemia. When a patient presents with levels that are low for these tests physicians generally acknowledge that there ought to be follow up to find out the explanation for the blood loss, including the chance of cancer of the colon.Look at the case of a 64 year old male patient whose blood tests showed all of the above. The following year, the individual's blood work revealed a worsening of the individual's problem. Additionally, the man’s stools were discovered to be positive for blood. Yet, doing no additional testing, the person's physician wrote a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the man’s chart. Furthermore, the person's PSA level (a test that is used to screen males for prostate cancer) was a 10.3 (a level above a 4.0 is usually viewed as high and worrisome for prostate cancer). The physician made no entry in the person's chart to indicate an having examined the prostate gland. The doctor failed to inform the patient about the high PSA levels and failed to refer the individual to a specialist.
Approximately 2 years after the patient went to a different doctor. Due to the man’s age this doctor had him undergo a barium enema. The result: a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. The patient died of metastatic colon cancer not even 3 years following his diagnosis. The man’s family initiated a claim against the doctor who dismissed the patient’s abnormally low blood test results and overlooked the presence of blood in the man’s stool. The law firm that represented the family was able to report that it settled for $1.25 million.
Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test outcomes are indicators that something might be wrong, perhaps dangerously wrong with the patient and call for follow up. At times follow up means repeating the blood test within a short amount of time to see whether the levels return to normal. However, if the levels are sufficiently above or below normal levels or keep getting worse, doctors normally agree that this raises the importance of ordering appropriate other tests to find out the reason behind those levels. Physicians also usually acknowledge that blood in the stool of an adult patient mandates immediate attention to rule out colon cancer as the cause. A colonoscopy is regularly used to look at the entire colon and either find or exclude the existence of any tumors. This physician did none of this.
Despite the fact that most cases that settle do so with no admission of liability by defendants it makes sense that the law firm that worked on this case was able to report such a substantial settlement.
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. You can learn more about cases involving coloncancer and other cancer matters including prostatecancer by visiting the website
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