Posted on 05/31/2015 5:09:33 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Pancreatic cancer, the type that former GOP Congressman Steve LaTourette is fighting, is notoriously difficult to diagnose, leading to a poor prognosis for most patients, experts say.
LaTourette, who is preparing to file a lawsuit against the U.S. government, says his treatment was unnecessarily delayed by more than two years, reducing his life expectancy. While medical professionals would not comment on LaTourette's care or treatment, early diagnosis in any cancer generally leads to better outcomes, they say.
In pancreatic cancers, though, even those who have treatable disease often don't fare very well, statistics show. LaTourette, who represented Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula and part of Cuyahoga County for 18 years, says he was not informed of a lesion on an MRI taken by Capitol doctors in 2012. He received diagnosis and treatment at the Cleveland Clinic last year, which included surgery.
Pinging the list (as a FYI).
The article attempts to discredit the patient’s case
against the doctor’s negligence.
Statistics do not apply to individuals.
I don't know why anyone would not try that before going thru the horrors of chemo and or radiation.
PM me and I'll PM you with his contact info.
The assumption of perfection is not the reality of capability.
The lawyer bringing the suit should be stood against the wall and shot
Isn't that pretty much what Steve McQueen tried for his cancer?
Pray that you are never on the receiving end.
/johnny
My Mom died from pancreatic cancer. Yes.. it wasn’t diagnosed until it was terminal. A week before her diagnosis, she spent two full days outside... weeding, cutting down tree saplings, planting a new garden. Then she became very, very tired and not feeling well. We got her to the doctor and her blood sugar (the onset of diabetes from the cancer) was almost to the diabetic coma level. Long story short, it was seven months until her passing. It is one of those cancers that have no warning signs until it is too late. There is a surgery but the CA has to be in a certain place in the pancreas and it allows up to two years more of life. Unfortunately for Mom.. hers was in the middle.
The reason we are taught not to eat apricot kernels or apple seeds is that they contain cyanide. Consuming cyanide may kill the cancer, but only because it kills the patient who has the cancer.
It's amazing that once someone has invented some scam to separate desperate people from their money (and often cause them to forego tested treatments), those old scams never disappear.
Cyanide is NOT safe. Cyanide will NOT cure anyone of cancer. Cyanide WILL cause people to die earlier than they might have otherwise.
People, please do not fall for these scams, and especially do not give your money to snake oil salesmen trying to sell you poisons relabeled as cures.
It does get tiresome to see the same scams over and over.
/johnny
Cancer is a odd thing, some are easy to diagnosis, others you never catch until it is to late. It depends on where they HIDE.
Both my parents had lung cancer. Dad was going to the VA every 3 months for chest xrays for Emphysema. They did not catch the cancer until he had 3 months to live. He beat the odds and made 6 months. Technically his heart gave out before the cancer killed him. With my Mom, they found it to late, offered chemo which would buy her an extra 2 months, she refused to be put through that torture and opted for Hospice. She lasted 6 months.
Stupid DIL who works in the med field as a CNA could not tell the red cauliflower nipple on 1 breast was not the same as the one on the other. Took a patient kicking her in the breast for the walnut size tumor to come to the surface. Stage 3 breast cancer that had spread into the nipple, milk ducts and 2 lymph nodes. She has both Receptors and the gene. Chemo was successful, but she has to take hormone suppression drugs for 5 yrs. She would not have found it if not for that patient kicking her in the breast. She is NOT the brightest bulb in the pack.
Former Pastor’s wife has had cancer 4 times, this last colon cancer killed her despite the fight she put up.
Friend has had breast cancer, thyroid cancer, kidney cancer and 1 other her doc keeps a close eye on her she is in her 80’s.
Hubby had a skin Basil Cell Carcinoma so I keep his skin checked and any suspicious spot and he is in to see the skin doc.
You suspect something wrong have it CHECKED.
I just had a VERY painful MAMMO Fri because I found a lump, came back negative. They even did a Ultra Sound. The 3 pea sized Fat Necrosis when found were quickly diagnosed and I was told they’d go away on their own as they were the result of a breast bruise. And they did.
Cancers are good at hiding.
Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer and he tried all kinds of crazy diet schemes. In fact, well before he was ever diagnosed, he was going weeks at a time eating just one type of food excessively and avoiding foods that could have kept him healthier.
Vegetarianism and it's offshoots annoy me the most. Show me one example of a person who lived a healthier life because they were a vegetarian. Yet they get all preachy and superior about it.
Ironically cyanide is about as deadly as the drugs they used in chemo. I agree with your snake oil salesman comments but sometimes those sales come from people with mds and phds.
A family friend went almost the exact same way. Diagnosed in March, passed in August. No sickness until she was suddenly very sick.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Prayers.
Thank you, sweetie. I think the worst part of it was watching the emaciation. I checked on her in the morning and each evening and I swear you could see her getting thinner each day.
Because it delays treatment which could actually help?
Because what you suggest doesn't work?
Because if it did work, doctors wouldn't suffer and die or allow their children to suffer and die to protect "Big Pharma", which is what conspiracy believers always claim?
Because the idea that everyone "in the know" would accept suffering and death for no reason except "conspiracy" is dumb and makes no sense?
Steve McQueen says "hi".<>
Cancer is such a terrible thing.
Our friend was young and her dad was terminally ill when she was diagnosed.
The decision was made among the siblings not to tell him. By the time she passed, he was too sick to be aware. He died not knowing that his daughter preceded him by a week and a half.
I hope to see it destroyed in our lifetimes.
That having been said, this failure of the government health system to notify the then-congressman of what was seen on the MRI back in 2012 is probably due more to bureaucratic failure, rather than failure on the part of the radiologists. This reinforces the basic hard truth that government run health care, no matter what its advocates proclaim, will generally be subject to more serious medical errors due to bureaucratic bungling, as opposed to health care in the private sector.
And this case also illustrates another hard truth that even conservatives tend to gloss over in the debate over health insurance: being the recipient of health care insurance coverage does not necessarily equate to access to the necessary health care that an individual needs. Health insurance does NOT equate to health care; in this case the then-congressman had what most would consider to be a "Cadillac" health insurance plan, yet the medical care he received through it was substandard. (The inverse of this axiom is true as well: one can have a minimal or even no health insurance plan, and still receive quality health care which the individual requires. So coercing citizens to have such and such a health insurance plan does not necessarily make those citizens healthier.)
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