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Lung Cancer undiagnosed

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D

Doubting Thomas

Guest
I live in Massachusetts but my father, the patient and subject of this post, lives in Michigan.

In March, this year, he was diagnosed with late stage small-cell lung cancer. It's in his lung and liver and he's being treated. Because it's not early stage there's no chance of a cure, no likely 2 year survival rate. HAD they caught the cancer when it was in an earlier stage he MIGHT have a shot at a 5 year survival.

Yes, he was a lifelong smoker so this is no mystery. The concern I have is that he is only 62 and in January 2001 - over a year prior to this present lung cancer diagnosis - he was diagnosed and treated for throat cancer. (Of course he immediately stopped smoking then - like it matters now.)

In 2001 he was successfully treated for the throat cancer and they were doing "follow-ups" with chest x-rays every 3 months. BUT no one did or suggested MRI or Ct Scan or more aggressive ways of finding bad news. I looked at his medical records and in August or September 2001 he had a "weird" xray so they sceduled a second one and THAT one was "suspicious" and he was about to FINALLY get a Ct Scan in MARCH 2002 when he got very sick, went into the hospital and learned there was a lung tumor blocking part of his bronchial tube.

Believe it or not - other than the (2) cancers he's had (has) Dad's in GREAT health. Goes to the gym 3-4 times a week. Plays sports, is slender - etc. This is one of the reasons that HAD those docs checked him our more aggressively back in January 2001 he might have easily been one of the guys who gets 5 years. Instead we're expecting mortality within the coming 6 months to possibly 9 months! Instead of dying in 2006, he's probably not going to make it to 2003. What's the value of 3 years to you? It sure means alot to me, to him, and to our family.

As a lawyer myself I am usually the first to say - don't go to court - you'll never be happy there - it's a house of pain!

But I know NOTHING about medical malpractice, so I don't trust my own advice. Plus I have a spend-thrift, half-wit for a sister who I feel I need to look out for and who would probably benefit from any successful suit, if there was one. Am I doing the WRONG thing by NOT hiring a lawyer?
 
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vrzirn

Senior Member
After successful surgical removal of throat cancer the 5 yr survival rate is about 50%. If your father were lucky he would have been in that group.
Unfortunately, he was not and developed mets to the lung. With very aggressive treatment of early SCLC (as a primary tumor)the 5 year rate drops to about 26-40%,depending on the study. Late diagnosis and it is about 8-10%. The fact that these were metastases makes the prognosis worse since they had already invaded the liver as well.
His doctors provided the necessary follow-up care and I do not see any negligence. You would have to prove that if they had taken scans he would have had 5 years. You cannot do that.
Scans are very expensive and are not given routinely as part of follow-up. In addition, scans are 90-95% accurate and much depends on who is doing the reading. Those were initially micro-metastases and easy to miss.
Talk to one of your attorney friends who specializes in medical mal-practice and you will probably hear the same opinion.
Your sister either needs to marry a very wealthy man or learn how to live beneath her means. I do not think an insurance company will support her.
As a note of hope: people can live for a long time with cancer in the liver. It messes up their electrolytes but they often do quite well. If the lung cancer is resectable he might make the 5 years.
Good luck.
 
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