Greedy Trial Lawyer
Informed Consent Is Not A License To Kill
Category: In Your Face
Virtually every operation is performed only after the patient signs what is called an informed consent. The form usually lists a number of medical problems or injuries which could occur during the surgery, including death. By signing the form the patient is acknowledging the fact that serious complications could occur but, nonetheless, consents to the procedure.
Nowhere on the form does the patient consent to carelessness, incompetence, breaches of the standard of care, poor technique, inattention, recklessness or any other type of misconduct by the surgeon or his assistants.
Kevin, M.D. appears to have the mistaken impression that if misconduct by the surgeon produces an injury which happens to have been listed in the informed consent the surgeon should be home free. Sorry, Kevin. It doesn't work that way. You're thinking of Agent 007's license to kill.
Informed consent doesn't shield this neurosurgeon
A physician loses a malpractice case due to a known complication:At trial, Wagner, OHSU's lawyer, told the jury that Ackerman's injury was a known risk of the surgery, and Ackerman had signed the consent form acknowledging that his doctor had educated him on complications.
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