Colon cancers on occasion bleed. Occasionally, the blood may be visible in the stool. IN those circumstances in which the cancer is near the rectum, the blood might even surface as bright red. Even when the blood is not visible, the bleeding may be detectible in other ways. For example, the loss of blood might show up as anemia. Blood tests may uncover internal blood loss that might be the result of a tumor in the colon. The key blood test results to check are the hemoglobin, hematocrit, and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) levels. Levels below the normal range may signal blood loss and iron deficiency anemia. If a person is found to have levels that are below normal levels for these tests physicians normally agree that there ought to be follow up to find out the reason for the blood loss, such as the possibility of cancer of the colon. Look at the case of a 64 year old male patient whose blood tests revealed all of the above. The following year, the patient's blood work revealed a deterioration of the man's problem. In addition, the man's stools were discovered to be positive for blood. Yet, doing no other testing or sending the man to a specialist the patient's doctor entered a diagnosis of hemorrhoids into the individual's record. Furthermore, the patient'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 generally regarded as high and worrisome for prostate cancer). The doctor did not put any report in the man's chart to document an having examined the prostate gland. The doctor failed to inform him about the high PSA levels and did not refer the individual to a specialist. Roughly 2 years after the person was seen by a different physician. Due to the patient's age this physician had him undergo a barium enema. The result: a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer. The patient died of the spread of the cancer less than three years following his diagnosis. The patient's family pursued a case against the physician who dismissed the patient's abnormally low blood test results and overlooked the existence of blood in the man's stool. The law firm that represented the family reported a settlement in the case in the amount of $1,250,000 Blood tests are done for a reason. Abnormal test outcomes suggest that there may be something wrong, perhaps even severely wrong with the patient and call for follow up. Sometimes follow up includes repeating the blood test in just a brief amount of time to find out whether the levels improve but when the levels are sufficiently above or below normal levels or continue to worsen, doctors commonly acknowledge that this increases the importance of ordering proper other tests to determine the reason behind those levels. Physicians further normally concur that blood in the stool of an adult individual mandates fast attention to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer as the cause. A colonoscopy is regularly used to look at all the colon and either find or exclude the presence of any tumors. This doctor failed to dor any of this. Despite the fact that settlements usually include no with no admission of liability by defendants it makes sense that the law firm that worked on this case reported such a significant settlement.
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Blood tests are used by doctors to check for possibly dangerous illnesses that may not otherwise be uncovered by a physical examination. The doctor thus should follow up when the test results are outside the normal range In one documented lawsuit a man's doctor did not follow up and therefore delayed the individual's diagnosis of colon cancer until it was advanced.
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. To learn about advanced colon cancer and other cancer cases including prostatecancer visit the website
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