Gastroenterological Negligence

Malpractice cases for gastroenterological ailments usually allege delay in diagnosis and treatment.  Such examples include delayed diagnosis and treatment of colon, rectal, gastric and esophageal cancer. The typical case alleges failure to diagnose a malignancy during an endoscopic procedure.  Usually the malignancy is discovered during a subsequent diagnostic procedure which can point to the existence of the disease during the previous endoscopy.

A gastroenterological complication that often leads to litigation is perforation of the gastrointestinal tract during endoscopy.  Perforation of the GI tract is considered a known risk of the procedure; it is usually the complications, associated with delayed diagnosis and treatment of the perforation, that result in litigation.