Colon cancer is highly survivable when detected early. However, this requires a medical provider to adhere to proper medical standards when testing for and diagnosing the cancer.
For instance, when a medical provider fails to order a colonoscopy despite warning signs, misreads diagnostic scans, or dismisses gastrointestinal bleeding, the cancer can spread.
If a healthcare professional’s delay caused your colon cancer to advance, you may have right to file a cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit in Philadelphia.
How Do Doctors Misdiagnose Colon Cancer?
Diagnostic mistakes in colon cancer cases often happen when a doctor attributes symptoms to benign health conditions and declines to order appropriate testing.
Common examples of negligence include:
- Attributing rectal bleeding and unexpected weight loss to hemorrhoids or IBS without additional testing
- Declining to order screening colonoscopies for at-risk patients
- Failing to follow up on abnormal fecal blood tests or suspicious imaging
- Misclassifying cancerous polyps as benign tissue
- Performing incomplete colonoscopies that miss tumors in the upper colon
- Failing to refer patients to a gastroenterologist
Younger individuals face heightened risks of misdiagnosis; providers often overlook colon cancer in patients under 45 despite rising rates of disease in this demographic.
How Can I Prove Malpractice-Based Colon Cancer Misdiagnosis?
Not every case of advancing colon cancer will support a malpractice claim in Philadelphia. Establishing a colon cancer misdiagnosis claim requires proving your provider breached accepted standards of care in identifying and testing for your condition. You must also show that the breach worsened your condition and you suffered specific damages from a more aggressive form of the cancer.
To prove your claim, your attorney will secure expert testimony from oncologists or gastroenterologists showing that timely intervention would have caught the disease at an earlier stage and, in turn, allowed for less invasive care and a more favorable health outcome.
Under Pennsylvania law, plaintiffs must submit a certificate of merit within 60 days of initiating any medical malpractice action. This official document features a qualified healthcare expert’s written confirmation that, after thoroughly examining the relevant medical documentation, reasonable evidence suggests the practitioner committed malpractice.
How Long Do I Have to File a Colon Cancer Misdiagnosis Case?
A delayed diagnosis can generate the right to a malpractice lawsuit. But that right doesn’t last forever.
Pennsylvania generally only provides two years to file a medical negligence lawsuit, measured from the date you discovered or reasonably should have discovered the cancer. So, you shouldn’t wait to take legal action.
If you file before the statute of limitations expires, you can seek damages for:
- Surgical expenses, such as colectomies or colostomy procedures required due to the delay
- Chemotherapy, radiation, and specialized immunotherapy
- Hospitalization costs and ongoing medical care
- Lost wages and diminished long-term earning capacity
- Physical pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Wrongful death damages when diagnostic failures prove fatal
Pennsylvania does not have statutory caps limiting what you can recover. You can seek damages for any provable financial or personal losses.
If a healthcare provider failed to diagnose your colon cancer in time and it got worse, contact Morris Wilson Knepp Jacquette, P.C. to discuss your legal options for seeking justice.