Detecting colon cancer, the third leading cause of death in the United States, can often be done by undergoing a simple colonoscopy. If your doctor failed to request a colonoscopy and you developed colon cancer, can he or she be liable for your injuries?
A colonoscopy is basically a video camera. What happens is that a tube is inserted into the colon that plays video of the whole colon and rectal area. The doctor can take a look at that as they’re moving the tube around and evaluate the entire area. If he sees an abnormal looking growth, a biopsy (taking a small piece of the abnormal area) will be done. He will then send it into a lab who will do a test on that small piece that can immediately identify whether or not this is a cancerous growth or something that needs to be removed. While it might seem difficult to find cancer, the truth is that many lay people would be able to spot it.
Doctors that do these types of tests are called gastroenterologists. They are very well trained and can identify whether something is cancerous or not simply by evaluating by eye. In fact, most of the time they can tell you when they look at that even before they do a biopsy of whether this is a dangerous growth or this is just something that’s benign that may be causing some bleeding. So, what might cause a doctor to misdiagnose, or fail to diagnose, colon cancer?
According to colon cancer misdiagnosis lawyers, one of the typical reasons that a doctor will not order a colonoscopy is that they’ll just believe that it has something to do with diet, that the person's diet is causing abdomen pain or bloody stool. Unfortunately, the only true way to diagnose whether some set of symptoms could be related to a cancerous growth in that area is by having a colonoscopy – and that diagnosis must happen as soon as possible.
The key with any cancer, and especially colon cancer, is early diagnosis which allows you to catch the cancer before it spreads to other areas of the body. There are four stages (one, two, three and four – four being the most serious) of colorectal cancer which are identified by where the cancerous lesions are located. They oftentimes start out in the colon and rectum and if they’re not taken care of in a timely manner, they’ll spread to other parts of the body, such as the liver, kidneys and other areas.
So, if you catch colon cancer early enough and are able to take it out, meaning undergo a surgery to remove it, and it’s confined to the colon and rectum, you have a very good chance of surviving. If, on the other hand, the cancer has left the colon and rectum, gone to either another organ or simply just outside the colon and rectum, then your chances of survival fall dramatically. In fact, if the cancer has spread to the liver, your chance of survival is in the single digits.
If your living with the results of a misdiagnosis of colon cancer, contact a colon cancer misdiagnosis lawyer to find out whether you might be entitled to damages. Keep in mind that every state has a different statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit, so it's in your best interest to contact a lawyer as soon as possible to determine whether filing a colon cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit to protect your claim is right for your situation.