Cancer affects approximately 40% of Americans in their lifetime including about two million every year. Fortunately the treatments are getting better and better and while cancer still sucks, it doesn’t always have to be a death sentence.
The key to beating cancer is early detection and diagnosis. The sooner you can begin treatments, the better your chances of survival. That is just common sense.
Unfortunately, a lot of people get cancer that isn’t caught early and quite often that’s because a doctor or other medical provider dropped the ball somewhere along the line. It’s shocking to me how often this is due to a simple lack of communication. You’d think that if there was the possibility of cancer that bells and whistles would go off, or at least there would be a backup system to make sure the patient is notified.
This brings me to the key for any Illinois medical malpractice lawyer to win a lawsuit for a failure to diagnose cancer. We typically are looking for at least a six month delay. That means six or more months have passed since a doctor should have known you have cancer to when they discover or tell you that you have it.
Here are some examples of cases we’ve worked on.
- A man had a PSA test which is a blood screen test for prostate cancer. His level was reported at 12 which is a very high level, but nothing was reported to him and no intervention done. A year later he had stage four prostate cancer.
- A non-smoking female was checked for a possible heart aneurysm. That test also turned up a suspicious 1.4 cm mass in her left lung. No radiologist interpreted that mass or advised her it existed. All of the focus was on the possible aneurysm which was fine. Three years later she had difficulty breathing and slurred speech. It was discovered that the mass had grown to three times the size and cancer had spread to her brain.
- A young woman had a lump in her chest. Her primary doctor examined her and told her it was just a fatty deposit. Nine months later she had stage 3 breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy.
- A man in his early 40’s reported blood in his feces and fatigue. For some reason a colonoscopy wasn’t ordered. More than a year later it was discovered he had colon cancer.
What all of these sad situations have in common is that had the medical professionals done their job, the cancer would have been caught at a much more manageable time. Studies have shown that if there’s a delay of at least six months it can make a really big difference in the ultimate outcome.
Note that you can’t ever go back farther than four years to sue for malpractice in Illinois (when over 18) so it’s important to act fast. That of course can be hard when you’ve been handed life altering medical news, but hopefully you or someone in your life can make a call. It takes time to investigate these cases so time really is of the essence.
If you’d like a free consultation with an experienced malpractice lawyer, please call us at 312-346-5320 any time. We promise to treat you like a family member or friend and do whatever we can for you.