Malpractice Re Cancer Treatment

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller who said, “My 85-year-old mom died in a nursing home after her cancer got worse. Do I have a malpractice case against her oncologist, who just two weeks before said the cancer had not spread?

It’s understandable to feel grief and want answers regarding the passing of a loved one.

While dealing with a family member’s cancer death can be difficult, bringing a successful medical malpractice case against her oncologist would require demonstrating negligence, or what lawyers and doctors call substandard medical care.

To succeed with a medical malpractice case based on the caller’s mother’s cancer death, there would need to be compelling evidence of the following:

Doctor-Patient Relationship: Evidence that there was an ongoing and active professional relationship between the caller’s mother and the oncologist.

Breach of Standard of Care: Credible medical expert proof that the oncologist failed to provide the same level of care that another competent oncologist, with similar training and experience, would have provided under similar circumstances. This might involve failing to order diagnostic tests based on symptoms and medical history, improperly interpreting test results, ignoring symptoms that suggested a worsening of the cancer, or failing to refer the patient to a more skilled specialist when information indicated the need to do so.

Causation: Does credible evidence from medical experts, for example, establish that the oncologist’s negligence directly caused harm or injury that substantially negatively impacted the patient’s outcome, potentially leading to a lost opportunity for more aggressive treatment, which would have had a significant impact on survival?

Damages: Did the deceased suffer physical pain, emotional distress, or medical expenses as a result of a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis? This could require more expert medical proof that the patient’s death was a direct result of the diagnosis mistake, or that the diagnosis mistake allowed the cancer to worsen substantially, leading to a demonstrable and significant reduced chance of successful treatment or survival, all of which contributed to the death.

Cancer is a complex disease, and sometimes even with the best care, the outcome is not favorable. Proving causation can be challenging. Defense lawyers likely will argue that the patient’s death was due to the natural progression of the cancer, not due to any negligence.

Obtaining a medical expert to review the patient’s medical records and determine if the oncologist’s actions fell below the standard of care, as well as to assess what, if any, damages can be causally linked to the oncologist’s care, would be the best next step for someone in the caller’s position.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”