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www.renalandurologynews.com JULY 2009 Renal & Urology News 31
LEGAL ISSUES IN MEDICINE
Patient Not Told of
An Ominous Finding
Urologist finds himself in court after not alerting a bladder stone
patient to a suspicious lung lesion revealed by x-ray
BY ANN W. LATNER, JD “I don’t understand,” Mr. G said tions would have been viable, buy- The plaintiff’s attorney may have
Mr. G, a 60-year-old nonsmoker, to the oncologist. “I had a chest ing Mr. G months or even years made a tactical error in not suing
went to the hospital to have x-ray at this hospital four months of life. the anesthesiologist and radiolo-
stones removed from his bladder. ago, and it was fine.” When it was the defense’s turn, gist as well. Both physicians knew
It was a simple enough proce- The physician nodded sympa- they introduced their own expert of the results of the x-ray. If they
dure. His urologist, Dr. D, 48, thetically. “Sometimes tumors grow oncologist who pointed to the had also been made part of the
had ordered all the pre-op tests, so fast that they can be undetec- speed at which the untreated tu- case, they would have had to tes-
including the chest x-ray man- table even a few months before.” mor had grown and the inability of tify that the responsibility in this
dated by the state for every pa- Mr. G’s daughter, coincidentally chemotherapy to slow its progress. case to inform the patient lay with
tient older than 50 who would be a physician in the same hospital, This, he explained, was evidence the urologist.
undergoing anesthesia. decided to take a look at the origi- To protect themselves, the other
The surgery went without a nal x-ray. To her shock she found two doctors would likely have
hitch, and Dr. D, assured his pa- that the spot on the lung had been
An x-ray revealed pointed the accusatory finger at
tient that the stones would no noted but not mentioned to any- a fist-sized Dr. D as the one who should have
longer be a problem. Mr. G went one four months earlier. notified the patient. It is also pos-
home relieved, but his relief was Despite several rounds of chemo- tumor in the sible that the anesthesiologist might
short-lived. therapy, Mr. G died just eight have been held liable for her
weeks after his cancer diagnosis.
patient’s chest. own silence because she noticed the
A spot on the lung One of his final requests was that spot but never mentioned it to any-
The pre-op chest x-ray revealed his wife and daughter sue the urol- that an earlier diagnosis would not one. (The radiologist at least noted
a small lesion on Mr. G’s lung ogist for not notifying him about have helped Mr. G—the cancer the spot on the chart and assumed
consistent with cancer. The radi- the results of the original chest was just too aggressive. that the operating physician, Dr. D,
o