For over 26 years we have helped thousands of people find the best attorney for their medical malpractice case. If you would like to speak to a lawyer for free please call us at 312-346-5320.
Winning a medical malpractice lawsuit in Illinois isn’t easy. People generally love doctors and understand that people do get sick. That said, there are standards of care in medicine that doctors must follow. When they don’t do it, a medical malpractice lawsuit will take place.
One of the most common lawsuits is for a failure to diagnose cancer. If a patient exhibits obvious warning signs and the doctor doesn’t act on their behalf, that is negligence. In most cases if the doctor delays the discovery of cancer by the patient for six months or more, it’s likely a good case. This is especially true when it comes to curable cancers like prostate cancer.
Some of the signs of prostate cancer include the following:
- Difficulty urinating
- Urinating a lot
- Weak and interrupted streams
- Bone pain
- Pain during urination
- Blood in urine or semen
If you have any of those symptoms and report them to a doctor, there are two tests they should do right away. The first would be a blood test and the second a rectal exam.
These are also the tests that should be performed on an annual exam, especially the blood test. When your blood is examined, they will look at your PSA level. That is a prostate specific number that indicates whether or not there are any problems with your prostate. The higher the number, the more likely it is that something is wrong. Normal for most men under 60 is less than four. If the number is near or above that, a rectal exam will be performed.
When doing the rectal exam, your doctor will feel your prostate. If it’s hard in any way, that’s a sure sign of cancer. With these two tests they can almost always tell if further intervention is needed and usually save your life.
Unfortunately we’ve seen cases where a patient had PSA levels 3-4 times more than the normal level and never have their doctor tell them it’s bad or do anything about it. If the patient is in the dark and their care is delayed, it greatly increases the chance of the cancer spreading.
We’ve talked to many people over the years who have Stage 3 or Stage 4 prostate cancer because their doctor didn’t do a basic part of the job. When that happens there likely is a lawsuit. These are sad situations, but we’ve been able to not only recover millions for our clients, but also help others avoid the same fate. Litigation does force doctors and hospitals to be more careful.
If you or a loved one has prostate cancer and would like to see if you might have a lawsuit, we’d be happy to help you. Contact us any time at 312-346-5320 to talk to an experienced lawyer. We help everywhere in Illinois.