Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it???

Standard of care refers to what a doctor did given the information presented at THAT time. So you need to stop with the tireless comments about how he had stage 4 cancer and omg how did anyone EVER call him a drug seeker and send him home? A young healthy person coming in with vague abdominal pain doesn't necessarily warrant imaging. You keep forgetting that simple point and that's what standard of care is based on, not what the final diagnosis was.

However, someone coming back on repeated visits with the same complaint that hasn't resolved almost always warrants further workup - in fact this is often how people DO lose malpractice lawsuits when they continue to dismiss a complaint, while the first doctors involved are generally dismissed barring any major red flags they didn't recognize. By the way, that is a possible reason why they CT'd him the next time around rather than any glaring mistake missed by the first 3 docs.

As again for the main point, both to reassure this poor guy and to make a point about the problems with our health care system, there is no way anything was missed in 6 weeks and hence regardless of standard of care, there's no way a lawsuit could be won. A very reasonable and rational approach to patient care is often to 'wait and watch', as benign things tend to improve on their own, while more serious diagnoses do not - warranting further workup. The main point is that a 6 week wait will not make a cancer any worse, and definitely not when it's already stage 4. They don't go from stage 1 to 4 in 6 weeks. Once again, I have to remind you that you're putting very bad ideas into the mind of someone who just got a terrible diagnosis and should be focusing on getting their affairs in order and enjoying their time, not getting 'revenge' and spending their remaining time bitter and full of negativity. I have seen many cases of medical malpractice, MANY cases, and this was not one of them.