my bereaving family want answers

My uncle got diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in his bladder around the end of febuary this year,

after months of gp visits about water infections and his legs swelling up he got admitted into hospital and diagnosed. after many scans and tests ( during this time his kidneys and heart stopped working as well as they should) they decided to blast the tumour and then they left him for about 4 weeks where he started to really deteriorate and developed an infection, he had a tube fitted to drain his kidneys and told us they would try radiotherepy when his heart got stronger and he had gotten over his infection. Unfortunatly he never got over his infection his heart got weaker and the cancer spread into his blood, they told us he had weeks to live, then the week after it was just days, then the day after they said he didn't have more that 48hrs if that. the hospital made him very comfortable by this point he wasn't in any pain and on the 18th of April he passed away peacefully in his sleep with my grandparents at his bedside. he was 59yrs old a husband, a father and a grandfather.

My Aunt and my Grandparents have so many questions they need answering and don't know how to go about it, Mainly why when he went into his gp with water infections over and over again was it not investigated more? especially as water infections in men are a lot less common and also why was he left so long after having his tumour blasted? 

  • Hi mrs_w. Welcome to the forum, although I'm sorry you join us in such sad circumstances.

    We're not doctors here, and as far as I know only the nurses have any medical qualifications. We're mainly cancer sufferers, survivors, or carers.  I'm very lucky to be a prostate cancer survivor.

    Unfortunately, the symptoms of a bladder infection and the symptoms of bladder cancer overlap a great deal (and it's possible to have both at the same time). Bladder cancer is also pretty uncommon in men under 60. Sadly, there is no simple blood or urine test for bladder cancer. 

    I've just checked the NICE guidelines for suspected bladder cancer. This is for men who present at their GP with urological problems.  You can check the page here.  The key factor would appear to be the visible presence of blood in the urine ("haematuria").  Note that for a person under 60, the blood must be visible to the eye. You don't mention whether your uncle had this symptom when he went to the GP. If there was no visible blood then it's difficult to say the GP should have acted earlier.