11 weeks?  Long enough to be frustrated, not long enough to warrant
discouragement.  Or a lawsuit.

Anyway, technically it's not the GP who did this to you, it's the
surgeon.  What papers did you sign for the surgeon?

jimhoney

I happen to be a lawyer but do not do malpractice so I'm not giving you
legal advice. But you hit the nail on the head - damages - and its
inherent facet, causation. Your old GP did not cause your PCa so you
can't sue him for that. Unless your surgeon screwed up or failed to
discuss the risks and side effects, you can't sue him for the usual
results of RP. You would have to prove by a preponderance of the
evidence that your disease and your prognosis were adversely affected
by the delay in Dx. While I'm sure you could find experts to so
testify, given the dearth and inconsistent results of long-term
survival studies, they may not fly in court. In most states you have a
year from discovery (Dx) to sue so, first, take care of yourself, and
worry about him later.

Bill Denton
RP 2/12/02
Memphis

You can try, but you probably may not get too far.   There is still a
significant part of the medical community which doesn't believe routine
PSA testing is necessary or desirable.  That is particularly true for
older men, so it could depend on your age.  If your doctor has been
following what might roughly be considered standard methods, you are
unlikely to collect anything.  In addition, if he has retired,  he may
have limited resources from which to collect anything.  He may no longer
have any applicable malpractice insurance.

Be optimistic about the impotence.  It may just go away.  Also, Viagra
is not going to be protected by patents forever, and eventually the
price will come way down when generics go on the market.  In any event,
your total Viagra bill is going to be small potatoes, and I doubt if any
attorney will take such a suit on contingency;  you will probably have
to pay up front.

There is a lot of mythology about malpractice.  In actuality, few people
who suffer from malpractice ever sue and even those that do don't
usually get any satisfaction.

I suspect that had he agreed to a blood test for liver function, your PSA
would not have been known to him or you.  Due to a jellyfish sting, I now
get PSA and blood work (including for liver function) about every 4 months.
They go into two vials for two separate tests, the results of which go to
two different docs.

However, you should have been getting annual PSA testing for the 13 years
before you were diagnosed.  I suspect that that is such a recognized
standard now that you might have something of a case.

docs

at

not posted to the newsgroup - private email

hi paul - psa 10.4 - 30 years of daily viagra,  you gave no age, but i
assume you had an active sex life.  

you doctor sounds a lot like my old doctor.  he was a member at my store
and i've known him for years.  one day, i decided to get a physical.  it
had been 11 years since i had one and i was still feeling as healthy as
a horse.  i specially told him that i wanted a psa test because of my
father having pca.  so, when i came back for a followup appt and ask how
the psa test turn out, he used the words, "it's normal"  i was just
starting to research pca because of my dad and accepted those words.  to
this day, i still do not know my numbers from him.  

so, let's say for the sake of argument that i did have a rising psa back
then, could i blame him for my problem?  answer - no.  i would have to
prove that he was negligent and mis dx'ed me and at that time, it was
neither.  

i do remember a person who had a psa of 16 and it when another year when
the psa was into the non-curable area that he found out he had prostate
cancer.  he was never given a biopsy nor was he told by his doctor there
was any reason for alarm.

another case in point......another friend. stage T1c, psa 6.  had RP,
had seminal vessel involvement but the surgeon didn't remove them.  as a
result, the seminal vessels were absorbed into the body and the pca
spread throughout his body and put him in stage T3a within a year.  at
present, he trying to sue the doctor, but is taking it the criminal
route because for a surgeon to do this procedure knowing that he is
considered at expert in prostate cancer is the same as killing him.  i
haven't heard any more on his case.

when you start getting into the legal field, i remember sitting in class
and the instructor said, "there are approximately 3 1/2 million laws on
the books in the united states and each and every person is responsible
for knowing each and every one of them because ignorance of the law is
no excuse."  

also, here's another point to ponder.  we are suing a hospital and
doctor for malpractice.  so far, it has cost us over 10,000 cash out of
our pockets and has taken 5 years to get it this far and is not even
close to going to trial.  and it's a hands down win type case.  i have
the leading doctor on her case who put in her records that she did not
get the best of care.  my son video taped every day she was in the
hospital (36 days) and you can see how her condition went down hill and
can show where the doctor being sued lied about treatment.  what was
suppose to take 4 days took 36 and they want us to pay for all their
mistakes.  the malpractice lawyer sent an email over to the other laywer
i have working on the case and across the header of the letter, he had
wrote, "we have a winner"  but when will i see a penny of it?  it's one
thing to talk about suing for malpractice - it another to actually be
involved in a case.

you are upset with the way things are going, but what's you have
described as post op is common.  what were you told before you had
surgery by your doctor or surgeon?  did they tell you that your life
would never be the same?  did they tell you that your erections will
never be better than what you had at present - that is the best you can
hope for.  in other words.....a person who is starting to suffer from ED
is not going to be cured and probably be far worse off afterwars.

if you are wanting to get old willy back.....you are going to have to
fight for it.  sure, you can try viagra and the other ED drugs, but old
willy had a routine - like standing up and looking at you when you woke
up.  it is up to you to take the actions needed in order to back him
back.  i did and can say that i was able to use willy 30 days after
surgery and i'm 21 mo. post op and don't need any ED drugs to get an
erection - so there's life after RP's but you can't wait for nature to
take it's course or else you may be playing with a dead battery.  

hope you're getting dry and have no other complications.  if you have
any questions - ask.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc