Failure to diagnose colon cancer

Failure to diagnose colon cancer. Our client began to experience gastrointestinal symptoms, and was referred by her family doctor to a surgeon for a colonoscopy. He told her he found nothing worrisome, and that she should repeat the colonoscopy in one year. Almost exactly one year later, after continued symptoms, a CT scan revealed a very large tumor which was diagnosed as stage IV colon cancer.

Surgery and chemotherapy were unsuccessful in preventing the spread of her cancer, and she died at age 55, leaving a husband, children and grandchildren.

Our experts said the tumor was present at the time of the colonoscopy, and if the surgeon has followed the guidelines which had been extensively discussed in the medical literature, he would have seen it and been able to remove it, with complete recovery.