Welcome and thank you for joining me, I am Gerry Oginski, a New York Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Trial Lawyer, practicing law here in the State of New York.
Today's topic is the straight truth about failure to diagnose cancer cases in New York. Here is what your attorney needs to know when evaluating a failure to diagnose cancer case. Number one, when were you or your loved one diagnosed with cancer. Number two, when had you last had any diagnostic imaging test such as an X-ray, a CT scan or an MRI. That will be very important to know when you had last been evaluated.
Number three, what complaints or problems did you or your family member complained off to your doctor and when. In other words, did the doctor fail to recognize and pick up on the fact that there were problems that should have been further investigated and you also want to know whether there was blood work done? Why is this important? It's important because the attorney must now put the pieces of the puzzle together to find out number of things.
They need to find out whether there was evidence of a problem that the doctor failed to pick up on. They need to find out whether the imaging tests and studies that were performed were improperly read. They need to know what type of cancer you are suffering from; is it a fast growing tumor, is it slow growing. What stage is the cancer at; is it stage 2 where it could be treated and may be operable, is it stage four where it has metastasized and spread to the rest of your body.
What is your prognosis; what is the likelihood that you will get better? What type of treatment are you receiving; are you getting chemotherapy, are you getting radiation therapy, are you having surgery trying treated? The question always that an attorney needs to know when evaluating a failure to diagnose cancer case is, if the condition had been detected, when there was evidence of it, a year or two or may be even earlier, what stage would it have been in of that time and what treatment would you have been eligible for and been able to receive if it had been detected a year or two earlier.
If you suspect that you or your loved one have been a victim of a failure to diagnose cancer, the best person for you to speak to would be your treating oncologist. That's a doctor who treats conditions involving cancer, whether it's by chemotherapy or radiation therapy or something called palliative therapy, therapy to try and make you feel better even though they cannot treat the cancer. And the question you should be asking your oncologist are, if treated earlier, would it had made a difference in the outcome. Will the treatment be any different if this had been detected earlier? And obviously, with all types of cancer, as the sooner it's recognized and treated, the better the chances you have for survival.
Obviously, you need to ask the oncologist, what would have been your chances of survival had this been detected earlier. And you want to know what the recurrence rates are, so that even if it was detected years earlier and treated years earlier, what is the chance that this tumor could come back at a later time. With that information, you will be better informed and better able to discuss with the attorney whether or not you have a possible valid case. I want to thank you for joining me, that's it for today's straight truth about failure to diagnose cancer cases here in State of New York. I am Gerry Oginski. Have a great day!
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