Being told one has colon cancer tends to bring up worry in nearly all of us. It can hence feel very reassuring to have your doctor say that you simply have hemorrhoids and there is no need to be concerned about the blood in your stool. But this reassurance ought to not be given until the doctor has ruled out the possibility of colon cancer (and other possibly dangerous gastrointestinal problems). Otherwise, you may not find out that you have colon cancer until it is too late. If a physician routinely assumes that reports of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding by a patient are the result of hemorrhoids and it subsequently is discovered that the patient had colon cancer all along, that physician may not have met the standard of care and the patient might have a legal claim against that doctor.
It is projected that there are presently at least 10 million men and women with hemorrhoids. An additional 1,000,000 new incidents of hemorrhoids will likely arise this year as opposed to a little more than the 100 thousand new instances of colon cancer that will be diagnosed . In addition, colon cancers do not always. If they do, the bleeding may be non-consistent. And based on the location of the cancer in the colon, the blood may not actually be apparent in the stool. Maybe it is simply because of the difference in the volume of instances being diagnosed that a number of physicians merely consider that the presence of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is from hemorrhoids. This is gambling, pure and simple. A doctor who reaches this conclusion is going to be right greater than 90% of the time. It sounds realistic, doesn't it? The concern, though, is that if the physician is wrong in this diagnosis, the patient may not find out he or she has colon cancer until it has reached a late stage, maybe even to where it is no longer treatable.
This is why doctors generally recommend that a colonoscopy should be done right away if a patient has blood in the stool or rectal bleeding. A colonoscopy is a method whereby a flexible scope with a camera on the end is employed to see the inside of the colon. If anything is detected during the procedure, it might be possible to remove it then and there should it not be very big. In any case, it will be biopsied to check for cancer. Colon cancer may properly be ruled out as the reason for the blood providing that a colonoscopy detects no cancer
By diagnosing complaints of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding as resulting from hemorrhoids while not doing the proper tests to rule out colon cancer, a physician puts the patient at risk of not finding out that the patient colon cancer until it reaches an advanced, possibly untreatable, stage. This may amount to a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and may result in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
In the event that you or a a member of your family were assured by a physician that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding were a result of only hemorrhoids, and were later diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, you should consult a lawyer immediately. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal (or medical) advice. If you have any medical problems you should seek advice from physician. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information contained herein but should 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. Immediately contact a lawyer are there is a time limit in cases like these.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting complex injury cases. You can learn more about cases involving stage 4 colon cancer and colon cancer liver spread cases visit the website
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