Virginia Board of Medicine Reprimands Doctor after Lawsuit-A Case That DID Make a Difference

Ben Glass

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The Virginia Board of Medicine has issued a formal reprimand to a doctor who has now promised to refer to a specialist any patient who has complaints of rectal bleeding.

In a case handled by our office several years ago, a Virginia jury awarded $1 million to a patient whose complaints of rectal bleeding and abdominal discomfort went were diagnosed as hemmorhoids for years.

According to the Board of Medicine's order, Alan Joshua, MD has "read additional literature" about colo-rectal cancer and no longer performs flexible sigmoidoscopy or anoscopy on patients with rectal bleeding. Instead, he refers them to colo-rectal surgeons for evaluation.

At trial, specialists testified that had this patient been seen by a specialist earlier, he could have avoided massive rectal surgery that left him injured for life.

The Board of Medicine's Order Reprimanding Dr. Joshua and making Virgina safer is here.