he then scheduled my surgery for 2 months out. During the surgery the surgeon noticed the tumor was in fact malignant and that it had now grown as it is a aggressive tumor in regards to growth. He removed part of my jaw muscle (down to the joint). My questions are, is this (the first doc) a case of medical malpractice? Or, should I get a second opinion? He (second doc) wants to start radiation immediately after I heal (6 weeks). How, other than a biopsy (impossible since the tumor is removed) do they detect cancer? Would a surgeon be better at detecting this than an oncologist?
CTC
U should see a specialist. Always get a second opinion with something as serious as that. U should definately contact a lawyer too. Good luck
jandy
That's a tough one, cause, you need to first, get copies of all your med reocrds from the first doc, inc bx reports, check the box that says continuity of care. if you check any other box, they can make you pay for cost. I think you just need to ask your surgeon, who detected the malignancy and ask about initial benign biopsy, or was it too early to detect malignancy when done. I know you are angry and want to pursue legal action. Once med prof know this, they won't talk to you and the word spreads very fast. Sometimes a needle biopsy , depending how it was done, (fluoroscopy/xray etc) may not have gotten enough tissue, so you need the lab reports/xrays etc. Usually, cancers are late diagnosis, but many treatable, and regular blood tests can indicate body's reaction to some cancers, others may have specific blood tests that an oncologist might order. Thank God he took care of it and you are getting treatment. You would have to quietly consult a medical malpractice attorney and also keep in mind, docs/attorneys are friends, too, not always.Some states have limited malpractice claims/capped. others, need case to be decided by judge if to go to trial. Truly, if you could just have an explanation about your type of cancer and how the benign to malignancy occurred might help your additional emotional/anger/pain. Sometimes they can't tell until they are actually doing a surgical removal and then you have a definitive diagnosis. I can't tell you how many times that surgeons have found something worse or not as bad they thought they would find..The first doc, I don't believe you can prove medical malpractice or delay in diagnosis. you need a few factors to prove malpractice, willful, neglect, caused permanent harm or death. Right now, need to take care of yourself. If you do retain an attorney, many will tell you it costs 50k to open an malpractice case and even if you did win, the capped malpractice payout, you could end up paying the attorney. Find out as much as you can about your treatment and get it done. If it's that aggressive, you need to be the same about it.the first and second doc both know each other very well. Medicine is very small community. good luck, take care of yourself.
BIG FAT MJ LOVER
hmm...interesting that no lab work was done to corroborate what the surgeon diagnosed.
I wouldn't be surprised the surgeon wanted to make an extra buck and figured he could charge more for a more intrusive surgery. (I used to have this gastroenterologist that wanted to do an upper endoscopy and a colonoscopy every time I came in to see him.)
Did you sign any papers before you went into surgery? I find it worrisome that a surgeon would be allowed to change his mind about the surgery without prewritten consent...
I know that if, say the lump is larger, they may switch to using a different technique. But I don't see how scooping out your muscle and bone was part of the agreed procedure...
I think you may have a case. At the very least I would say that there are definitely many questions that need more answers.
A lot of lawyers don't ask for any money if you don't win, but take a big chunk if you do win. Lawyers are hard to deal with too. You do have a tough job ahead of you.
*****************
On a side story,
My Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer over a year ago. He had a biopsy done after blood tests showed an elevated PSA level. Having a biopsy done for this is quite intrusive, but it is the only conclusive test for prostate cancer. The cost and the injury that would be incurred by getting another set of tests and a second opinion was out of the question.
After being diagnosed he has never visited a doctor again. He would send his blood samples by mail to the lab to see what his PSA levels were at while using some alternative therapies. About 5 months after diagnosis his PSA levels were within normal range.
What has happened leaves us with very disturbing questions. For example:
1) If alternative cancer treatment is THAT easy why are people being poisoned an tortured with chemo, radiation and surgery?
2) Let's say the treatment didn't work. Does that mean he was misdiagnosed? And if so, how often are people misdiagnosed and forced to endure hazardous cancer treatment when they, in fact, don't have cancer?
Spreedog
A positive biopsy is ALWAYS necessary to make any cancer diagnosis.
Surgeons and pathologists make the diagnoses - not oncologists.
I am a retired medical oncologist. In twenty years, I never made a cancer diagnosis. My job was to plan a treatment regimen once a diagnosis was established by a surgeon and pathologist. The pathologist does that with tissue provided from a surgical biopsy or a needle aspiration. The only needle aspiration that a medical oncologist does is a bone marrow test for leukemia - and the pathologist makes the final reading on bone marrow biopsies and aspirates. A fine needle aspirate is not as good as a surgical biopsy for making a histopathological diagnosis. You could try suing the pathologist, but the lawyers for the pathologist will say that there is a false negative risk with this less invasive biopsy technique, and it is not criminal negligence. They will be right.
Two months is a fraction of the overall course for any type of malignancy. That delay is not likely to mean a life and death difference in most cases. Most cancers are growing for years before they are detected. It is always easy in retrospect to say you should have had the surgical biopsy right away. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. The fact that you had three fine needle biopsies means that your first doctor was diligently trying to find the diagnosis. You don't tell us the specialty of the first doctor, but he or she probably was not the pathologist reading the slides from the biopsy material.
All of this lawsuit stuff drives up the cost of health care. Medicine is not straightforward and simple. The very best of us can be fooled by unusual presentations for diseases. There will never be a perfect doctor, yet society expects perfection.
What type of malignancy do you have in the mandibular region?
What is your age?
What was the specialty of the first doctor?
You have left out a great deal of important information.
It seems that the focus should be on treatment now that you apparently have a diagnosis rather than trying to find someone to blame and sue.
BSherman
Instead of focusing on get-rich-quick lawsuits, you need to have your cancer medically treated. Get your priorities strait.
Orignal From: Medical Misdiagnosis - Cancer My doctor after a fine needle biopsy (3 actually) stated I had a benign tumor?
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