Just the thought that one might have colon cancer tends to bring up fear in the majority of us. It can thus feel very reassuring for your physician tell you that you merely have hemorrhoids and there is no need to be anxious about the blood in your stool. However this reassurance should not be given until the doctor has eliminated the chance of colon cancer (and other potentially serious gastrointestinal problems). Otherwise, you may not learn that you have colon cancer until it is too late. If a doctor routinely assumes that reports of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding by a patient are from hemorrhoids and it eventually turns out to be colon cancer, that doctor may not have met the standard of care and the patient might have a legal claim against that physician.

In excess of 10 million people have hemorrhoids and another 1,000,000 new cases of hemorrhoids will likely arise this year as opposed to a little more than the 100 thousand new instances of colon cancer that will be diagnosed this year. In addition, not all colon cancers bleed. If they do, the bleeding could be non-consistent. And based on where the cancer is in the colon, the blood might not even be apparent in the stool. Possibly it is simply because of the difference in the volume of instances being identified that some physicians just assume that the presence of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is because of hemorrhoids. This amounts to gambling, pure and simple. A doctor who reaches this conclusion is going to be right more than ninety percent of the time. It sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? The problem, though, is that if the doctor is wrong in this diagnosis, the patient might not find out he or she has colon cancer before it has reached a late stage, possibly to the point where treatment is no longer effective.

This is why doctors generally recommend that a colonoscopy should be ordered without delay if a patient has blood in the stool or rectal bleeding. A colonoscopy is a procedure that uses a flexible scope with a camera on the end is employed to examine the interior of the colon. In the event that something is discovered during the procedure, it might be possible to take it out right away should it not be very big. In any case, it will be biopsied to check for cancer. Only if no cancer is detected from the colonoscopy can colon cancer be eliminated as a cause of the blood.

By telling the patient that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding as caused by hemorrhoids while not doing the proper tests to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer, a physician puts the patient at risk of not knowing he or she has colon cancer before it progresses to an advanced, possibly untreatable, stage. This might constitute a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and might bring about a malpractice case.

If you or a a member of your family were assured by a physician that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding were caused by nothing more than hemorrhoids, and have since been diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, you ought to speak to an attorney immediately. This article is for basic educational usage only and is not intended to be legal (or medical) advice. If you have any medical issues you should seek advice from physician. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information contained herein but ought to instead consult with an attorney. A competent lawyer with experience in medical malpractice might be able to help you determine should you have a claim for a delay in the diagnosis of the colon cancer. Do not wait to contact an attorney are there is a time limit in claims like these.