Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 6/3/2008

Question
My father was diagnosed with a melanoma brain tumor on Dec. 29th and the doctors were all not clear as to time frame he had.  I can understand that they do not know due to they are not God but they were all over the board.  In the end we found out from the doctor they "dumped" him on in a "rehab" hospital that we were thinking was to get him back to somewhat walking status that he had 2-3 weeks to live due to his brain was bleeding....is there any way to find out when they knew it was bleeding.  They did 10 days of radiation and then a "GammaKnife" procedure with an MRI.  Would they have not know till the MRI with the "GammaKnife" radiation or would they have know before from the other cat scans and test?  He was diagnosed 12-29-2007 and died 36 days later on 2-3-2008.  As a biased daughter I think the doctors could have been more forthright with information but don't know.  He was in a very well know medical facility so I am having a hard time with the fact that the doctors were not straight with us.  Can you please help my understanding of this at all???  Thanks!

Answer
CT and MRI scans MAY have showed a bleeding but I can not be sure. However regardless of any bleeding a malignant melanoma that has spread to the brain has a completely hopeless prognosis and the survival time can at most be measured in months - often less. Personally I think it is always best to tell the plain truth but many people find that hard to do which probably was the case here! That is the closest I can come to an explanation! We are all humans with human weaknesses.