When you go to your doctor’s office with an ailment, you trust that he or she will take you seriously and conduct whatever tests are necessary to diagnose your illness. Unfortunately, our sometimes “blind faith” in doctors ends up hurting us more than helping us. That’s what happened to a Nevada mother – who died from undiagnosed cancer at the age of 27.
According to news reports, 24-year-old Elisa Sanchez gave birth to her first child in 2003. Although she delivered the child without complication, she visited her doctor shortly afterwards complaining of blood in her stool. Without doing an exam, her doctor concluded that she had hemorrhoids and constipation and told her to take over the counter medications. She did so, but the problem only got worse. She returned to the doctor many times afterwards, but he still never ordered a colonoscopy. On one occasion, a nurse at the same medical facility did an oral rectal examination. He found a mass, but concluded that it was a hemorrhoid – again, without ordering a colonoscopy.
Sanchez eventually ended up in the emergency room where it was discovered that she had stage four rectal and colon cancer. She died at the age of 27 – leaving her husband and three year old behind. Her family sued the doctor, nurse and medical facility for failing to diagnose her cancer and a jury awarded them $2.5 million in damages.
In order to prove damages, the family’s lawyer had to find out Sanchez’s chances of survival if the cancer had been correctly diagnosed when she first went to her doctor. He concluded that Sanchez would have had a 97% of survival had she been correctly diagnosed at that time. Her diagnosis three years later decreased that percentage to only 50%. That information likely played a large part in the jury’s decision to award the $2.5 million. Two million dollars of that award was for economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, etc.), $250,000 was for Sanchez’s pain and suffering and the remaining $250,000 was for the future pain and suffering of her husband and child.
Experienced attorneys can prove damages in many ways including expert testimony, medical studies, longevity charts and damage awards from previous cases. If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of another, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney to discuss your situation and evaluate your options.