Failure to Diagnose Prostate Cancer

One of the more common forms of cancer is prostate cancer, which affects the cells in the gland below a man’s bladder. When caught early, it can usually be treated and resolved before it metastasizes. If you experience urination problems, difficulties getting an erection, urinary or fecal incontinence, weakness in the legs, or bone pain, you should talk to a doctor about these symptoms, and he or she should act appropriately to diagnose the problem. In some cases, a doctor’s failure to diagnose prostate cancer results in devastating harm. Most cancer patients do not have enough saved to get appropriate care and to make up for the difficulties of recovery once cancer has progressed. You should discuss whether you have a viable claim to recover damages with the experienced Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys.

Numerous risk factors affect whether you get prostate cancer. Your doctor should be aware of your family history along with your symptoms when diagnosing you. You may be asked to go through age and risk factor-related screenings; if you have symptoms a doctor may perform a physical exam. If you have prostate cancer symptoms, the doctor may need to conduct a differential diagnosis, in which multiple potential diagnoses are tested to determine whether they can be ruled out.

When there are signs of prostate cancer, a doctor will need to perform specific tests, such as checking your tissues, blood or urine for a biomarker. The doctor may also need to manually check for prostate abnormalities and perform a biopsy, transrectal ultrasound scan, and a PCA 3 test. However, each doctor’s professional duty of care can vary with his or her specialty, as well as the geographic region in which he or she practices medicine. A family care provider may be required to act very differently when figuring out whether a prostate cancer diagnosis is applicable than an oncologist or other specialist. Once cancer has spread, other scans should be performed to track the metastasis.

Not all mistakes in diagnosis constitute medical malpractice. To recover damages, our trustworthy Syracuse attorneys will need to consult experts with the goal of proving: (1) your doctor owed you a professional duty of care, (2) the doctor breached that duty, (3) the breach caused your injuries, such as unchecked metastasis of prostate cancer, and (4) you suffered damages because of the failure to diagnose.

In many instances, doctors defend themselves by arguing that the early catch and diagnosis wouldn’t have made a difference to the outcome; it’s important to retain lawyers who understand how to counter this argument with strong expert evidence and presentation at trial.

Various treatments are available to deal with early-stage prostate cancer, including a radical prostatectomy to remove the prostate and intensity-modulated radiation therapy. When cancer progresses due to failure to diagnose, more painful forms of treatment such as androgen deprivation therapy could be needed. You should not have to go through more difficult procedures because of a doctor’s failure to conduct a proper differential diagnosis, or failure to test each potential diagnosis adequately when you first went in with symptoms. We may be able to recover compensation if you find yourself in this position.

If we can establish a health care provider’s liability in or around Syracuse, we may be able to recover pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment, loss of consortium, medical bills, lost wages, and replacement services. For example, if you become so severely ill as a result of failure to diagnose prostate cancer that you require a far costlier procedure than you would have otherwise needed, and you can no longer take care of your children or housework and need to hire out, we would try to recover compensation for those economic and noneconomic losses.

If you were injured or a loved one was injured because a health care provider failed to diagnose prostate cancer, give the seasoned Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys a call. We represent injured patients in Canandaigua, Lowville, Auburn, Buffalo, Oneida, Utica, Rochester, Albany, Wampsville, Watertown, Herkimer, Oswego, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Binghamton, Elmira, and all of Upstate New York. Call us at 833-200-2000 or complete our online form to schedule a free initial consultation. We represent clients on a contingency fee basis.