Medical Malpractice?????

Goodletsville TN

I have a personal question or am seeking some advice on an issue. I thought I would ask what you might recommend or someone we could talk with before we try to contact an attorney whom we will have to pay a fee just for information, we want to make sure that there would be something justifiable to look into before we spend an exuberant amount of money for nothing. I guess this issue would fall within the medical malpractice arena.

My fiancé's Mom just passed away last week from liver cancer and we believe her doctor did not provide proper care for her. We have questions in regard to: Is there any sort of written standard of care or certain protocol that her doctor should follow when an elderly (74) year old female visits her doctor complaining of blood in the stools? I ask because a short time ago my fiancé's Mom had complained to her doctor about the blood in her stools and loss of appetite and feeling tired and we do not believe proper actions were taken. Anyway the short summary is that she finally admitted herself into the hospital for being dehydrated and feeling weak and after they performed several tests, she was diagnosed with cancer that started inside her body and had spread rapidly to her liver and they gave her two to eight months to live and she did not even make it a month. So, we were wondering if there is any set protocol or tests that should be done when an elderly patient visits her doctor with blood in the stools. She had visited her doctor back in November and he did not do any tests on her to check for the possibility of cancer or any other problem associated with the bloody stools. We don't know if the doctor had diagnosed this back in November or sooner if it would have increased her chances of halting the spread of cancer of given her more time to live if treatment had begun. We feel the doctor may have been negligent in his duties as her primary care provider. We are trying to find some medical sources who could assist us with seeing if her doctor did not follow any certain sets of protocol or standards? Not only are we concerned about a delay in diagnosis by her doctor, but also negligence on the part of her doctor to do any tests or labs and just prescribe medication to treat the bloody stools. Anyway, I know the info is vague, but I wanted to summarize our concern. I hope you can offer some insight to us or what direction we can proceed with this concern or possibly any websites that we could search. Thanks in advance.

[vrzirn]

The relatively short delay would not have affected the outcome. The primary tumor had metastasized to the liver and probably elsewhere. She might have been in denial for a long time before seeking medical advice.
Without a thorough review of her medical records your account is going to remain vague. People do get sick and people do die and quite often there is nothing anyone can do about it.
You can get a short, low-fee initial consultation but any in-depth review of the records will require a retainer.
It is unlikely that you have any cause for a successful lawsuit.