Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawyer

WEBVTT 00:00:06.686 --> 00:00:09.700 Another situation we deal with fairly frequently 00:00:09.701 --> 00:00:12.057 is missed cancer diagnosis, 00:00:12.058 --> 00:00:18.000 whether it's breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer. 00:00:18.614 --> 00:00:21.271 Oftentimes, you'll go to the doctor with a concern, 00:00:21.272 --> 00:00:24.400 and it gets brushed off, and it doesn't seem like a big deal. 00:00:24.729 --> 00:00:28.113 Unfortunately, if cancer isn't caught timely, it spreads, 00:00:28.114 --> 00:00:31.514 and it becomes metastatic, and it can be devastating. 00:00:31.515 --> 00:00:35.900 The treatment would go from a simple surgical resection to surgical resection, 00:00:36.181 --> 00:00:39.734 extensive chemotherapy, extensive radiation therapy, 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.243 and oftentimes becomes terminal. 00:00:42.443 --> 00:00:44.628 That's another situation where we can go in, 00:00:44.629 --> 00:00:47.757 and we look at the visit where it should have been caught, 00:00:47.758 --> 00:00:51.129 and we'll build a team of experts to show what should have happened, 00:00:51.130 --> 00:00:53.770 or let's say we look at the radiology, the mammogram, 00:00:53.771 --> 00:00:56.486 to say, "Here's where it was at that time, and here's what should have happened 00:00:56.487 --> 00:00:57.686 in response to that." 00:00:57.687 --> 00:01:00.957 Another area that we deal with is simply that radiology. 00:01:00.958 --> 00:01:04.928 When you go in, say, you have a severe headache, 00:01:04.929 --> 00:01:07.286 maybe it's a migraine, maybe it's a stroke, 00:01:07.287 --> 00:01:10.571 maybe it's an aneurysm, maybe it's cancer, who knows? 00:01:10.929 --> 00:01:14.529 Oftentimes you'll get imaging, a CT scan or an MRI, 00:01:14.729 --> 00:01:19.699 and making sure that those interpretations are accurate is a big deal. 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:24.843 I've worked a lot of radiology cases, I've worked with a lot of radiologists. 00:01:25.829 --> 00:01:29.899 At this point, I can work myself through a CT scan fairly well. 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:32.086 Obviously, they're going to be able to read the shadows 00:01:32.087 --> 00:01:33.472 and things a lot better than I can, 00:01:33.473 --> 00:01:36.086 but that's something that's been a lot more fun 00:01:36.087 --> 00:01:40.114 is getting in and interpreting CT scans and navigating CT scans. 00:01:40.115 --> 00:01:43.386 Obviously, I'm not an expert in interpreting them, 00:01:43.387 --> 00:01:47.079 but there are some things that have stood out as fairly obvious. 00:01:47.343 --> 00:01:50.971 Some diaphragmatic hernias, some twisting of the bowels. 00:01:50.972 --> 00:01:57.413 Ischemic bowels are fairly significant, where patients go in with sudden onset, 00:01:57.414 --> 00:02:02.514 severe abdominal pain with no explanation, and maybe their labs are slightly off. 00:02:02.515 --> 00:02:03.720 We've had that missed. 00:02:03.721 --> 00:02:05.329 What's actually going on is, 00:02:07.357 --> 00:02:11.499 oftentimes a clot or a twist in the bowels and the bowels aren't getting blood. 00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:14.999 Similar to your brain or anything else, if you put a tourniquet on your finger, 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.479 it's going to go purple, and it's eventually going to die. 00:02:17.480 --> 00:02:19.029 The same thing happens with your bowels. 00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:21.029 If they're not getting blood, they die. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:25.100 When your bowels die, that can be devastating, 00:02:25.487 --> 00:02:29.070 oftentimes resulting in ileostomies, colostomies 00:02:29.071 --> 00:02:30.760 that may or may not be reversed. 00:02:30.761 --> 00:02:34.942 I have a patient where bowel ischemia was missed, 00:02:34.943 --> 00:02:38.143 and they took out pretty much all of their intestines. 00:02:38.144 --> 00:02:39.699 That individual, unfortunately, 00:02:39.700 --> 00:02:41.457 has what's called a short gut syndrome now, 00:02:41.458 --> 00:02:43.586 where they just can't process food, 00:02:43.587 --> 00:02:49.286 and they have to live off of IV and TPN, food therapy for nutrition, 00:02:49.714 --> 00:02:52.771 because they don't have the bowels to process them anymore.