What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Virginia
While I'm not what I consider a litigious person, I've been carefully considering filing a malpractice lawsuit against my mother's former doctor. Here is what has happened.
My mother was seeing the same general practicioner (sp?) doctor for about 5 years. She has a history dating back to 1985 of breast cancer and has had two mastectomys and three other, minor lumps removed since 1985. She went to the doctor in question several times since around July of last year complaining of ever increasing lower back pain. This doctor is well aware of her cancer history.
The doctor told her that the pain in her back was most likely arthritis and prescribed pain killers for the first few months and then, around the first of this year when the pain became worse, he had an MRI or bone scan done by a third party specialist. I do not remember if it was a MRI, CAT scan or a bone scan. Two to two and a half months passed with no contact from the doctor with results.
After several calls asking for the results of the test, my mother was getting frustrated with the doctor so she went to another doctor and asked if he could get the results from the third party MRI or bonescan provider. That doctor acquired the results within a few days, called my mother and told her that it appeared that she had cancer in her spine and advised her to see an oncologist ASAP.
She went to an oncologist who ran some tests of his own and concluded that she did indeed have a tumor but not only in her spine, it was also in her hips and, we later found out after a full body scan (MRI or bonescan) that it is also in her neck.
The oncologist hospitalized my mother so he could get her pain under control and begin radiation treatments within a day or two of receiving the results of the scans he ordered. The oncologist clearly stated that time was of the essence. Now, going on four months, 13 radiation treatments and a total of 20 days in the hospital and 11 in a nursing home (for easier access to treatment, at the oncologist's suggestion), my mother is in my living room in a hospital bed dying of the cancer.
As I said in the beginning of this post, I'm not a litigious person and I despise how litigious our country has become but to me, this just reeks of malpractice. When she was still coherent, my mother asked me not to attempt to sue the doctor because she had enough problems to deal with at the time. I'm not considering this for monetary gain as all of her hospital bills were covered by either her health insurance or Medicare, I just want to make sure that the doctor in question thinks twice before doing this again. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
While I'm not what I consider a litigious person, I've been carefully considering filing a malpractice lawsuit against my mother's former doctor. Here is what has happened.
My mother was seeing the same general practicioner (sp?) doctor for about 5 years. She has a history dating back to 1985 of breast cancer and has had two mastectomys and three other, minor lumps removed since 1985. She went to the doctor in question several times since around July of last year complaining of ever increasing lower back pain. This doctor is well aware of her cancer history.
The doctor told her that the pain in her back was most likely arthritis and prescribed pain killers for the first few months and then, around the first of this year when the pain became worse, he had an MRI or bone scan done by a third party specialist. I do not remember if it was a MRI, CAT scan or a bone scan. Two to two and a half months passed with no contact from the doctor with results.
After several calls asking for the results of the test, my mother was getting frustrated with the doctor so she went to another doctor and asked if he could get the results from the third party MRI or bonescan provider. That doctor acquired the results within a few days, called my mother and told her that it appeared that she had cancer in her spine and advised her to see an oncologist ASAP.
She went to an oncologist who ran some tests of his own and concluded that she did indeed have a tumor but not only in her spine, it was also in her hips and, we later found out after a full body scan (MRI or bonescan) that it is also in her neck.The oncologist hospitalized my mother so he could get her pain under control and begin radiation treatments within a day or two of receiving the results of the scans he ordered. The oncologist clearly stated that time was of the essence. Now, going on four months, 13 radiation treatments and a total of 20 days in the hospital and 11 in a nursing home (for easier access to treatment, at the oncologist's suggestion), my mother is in my living room in a hospital bed dying of the cancer.
As I said in the beginning of this post, I'm not a litigious person and I despise how litigious our country has become but to me, this just reeks of malpractice. When she was still coherent, my mother asked me not to attempt to sue the doctor because she had enough problems to deal with at the time. I'm not considering this for monetary gain as all of her hospital bills were covered by either her health insurance or Medicare, I just want to make sure that the doctor in question thinks twice before doing this again. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.