Was the Dr. negligent?

What is the name of your state?[email protected] What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Iowa
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Hi, my daughter was diagnosed with uterine cancer last month and had to have a hysterectomy removing everything; cervix,uterus,ovaries and lymph nodes. For the past year she had almost constant heavy bleeding and went to her Dr. many,many times about it. A year ago last July she had a D&C to try to stop it. On her next visit to her Dr. she asked him about the test results that he took when he done the D&C and was told everything was fine.The bleeding continued and the only thing done was putting her on birth control pills to try to stop it. She went to two other Drs. and they did the same,birth control pills to help regulate her. On her last visit to her Dr. last month with no change to the bleeding, he decided to send her to a women's clinic in a nearby city.When talking to the Dr. at the women's clinic and looking over her records,she was asked if she was told the results of her pap after her D&C the previous year. She told the Dr. that she was told everything was ok. The Dr. then underlined the words "complex hyperplasia" and told her that no, it was not ok because she had pre-cancer cells then.She had another pap done and within three days she got a call at home from the Dr. that she indeed did have cancer of the uterus and would need a hysterectomy. So a week later she was in the hospital having surgery. The tumor in her uterus was much larger than expected but thankfully it had not got into the surrounding tissue so no radiation was needed. I feel that her family doctor was negligent. If he would have taken care of the bad cells a year ago she wouldn't have had to go all that she went through. She is 30 years old and has one son and planned to have more children but now that is not possible. She has missed a lot of work this past year and also is thrown into menopause at a very young age. Being her mother, I am very upset with this Dr. Is it just me being a mom or should we consult an attorney?

Gram49

Call a lawyer as fast as you can. I just seen some other websites with some other cases just like this one and they weren't so lucky to make it because they didn't find out as fast as your daughter did. She was blessed to get a Dr. to finally tell her the pap test result from the previous year. She should be happy to have her one son and it's also sad that she can't have anymore. Keep strong and be there for your daughter and grandson. CALL A LAWYER QUICK.

This may not be such an easy to answer question. Complex hyperplasia should be investigated thoroughly, but it is not unusual for the process to take a year. Personally, I find it unacceptable to do anything less than go in and remove the uterus; but, alas, medical science does not agree with me and believe it or not, neither do most women. They want to hang on to the uterus even if it means that in a year's time, precancer or findings highly indicative of precancer has become cancer, sometimes with metastisis.

My main questions are: What stage was the tumor and how long had it been growing? A year ago, would it have been evident on ultrasound? What about the lab tests done on the tissue samples sent from the D&Cs?

There may be a valid claim and there may not be a valid claim. The daughter will have to prove that if she had received further testing, different medical treatments, etc. that she would not have developed the tumor and she would not have required the removal of the uterus, tubes, ovaries, and lymph nodes.

I do agree with consulting with a medmal attorney as soon as possible because the statute of limitations potentially began to run on the date the MD told the daughter of the tests results from a year ago. Further complicating this is that at least three physicians are involved in failing to diagnose.

The loss of having future children is something that was going to occur anyway, more likely than not. I do not believe those damages will hold to have been avoidable.

Best wishes,
EC