Patients are guaranteed certain rights regarding their medical care. This includes the right to give informed consent before a surgery. If a doctor fails to obtain informed consent and performs a medical procedure without it, this could be a form of negligence that gives rise to a malpractice claim.
A Chicago surgery error lawyer at Gill Ports Hoste LLC can provide insight into whether your doctor obtained informed consent and can help you to pursue a legal claim for compensation if your provider failed to do so. Give us a call or contact us online today to schedule a free consultation and find out more about your rights after an informed consent violation.
You can also read on to learn more about what informed consent is and common issues when obtaining consent.
Definition of informed consent for surgery
According to the Cleveland Clinic, informed consent is both legally required and a core principle in the code of medical ethics.
Essentially, it means that a doctor must fully explain all your treatment options, including the risks, benefits, and alternatives, before you agree to any type of treatment plan. Informed consent is necessary so you can make a meaningful and fully aware decision about the costs and potential benefits of any specific medical care.
The American College of Surgeons provides insights into the kinds of details that patients may want to have in order to give informed consent for surgery, including:
- The reasons for the surgery
- Alternative treatments available
- The likely outcome if you don’t have the surgery
- The basic processes involved in the procedure
- The risks and the potential future benefits of the surgery
- Whether you’ll be hospitalized and for how long
- What recovery looks like
Surgeons who obtain informed consent must also make sure that the patient has capacity (can fully understand the facts and make a choice) and that the patient is making the choice voluntarily without pressure or force.
Informed consent should be fully documented, and patients should have the opportunity to ask questions and truly feel like a partner in the decision-making process.
What happens if your surgeon doesn’t get informed consent?
If a surgeon fails to get informed consent, the patient can often take legal action for medical malpractice. This will involve proving several elements of a malpractice claim, including that:
- The surgeon failed to obtain informed consent, or failed to disclose material information that any reasonable patient would have wanted before making a decision to undergo an operation. This could be the case, for example, if the doctor didn’t disclose the risks or explain alternatives.
- The patient would not have consented to the procedure if they were aware of the truth about the medical care and about the risks and alternatives.
- The patient experienced harm as a direct result of the doctor’s failures. This needs to be actual losses the victim can be compensated for.
These claims are complex because it can sometimes be hard to prove that you would have made different decisions if provided with the proper information.
You’ll need an experienced medical malpractice attorney at Gill Ports Hoste LLC on your side to help you understand where your surgeon fell short and to prove that you deserve to be paid damages due to their failures.
Contact a Chicago malpractice lawyer today
Gill Ports Hoste LLC has spent over 100 years fighting for injured victims, and we’ve recovered over $500 million in damages for our clients. We understand the ins and outs of informed consent failures and will bring our knowledge to your case to help you pursue justice.
Give us a call or contact us online today to schedule your free consultation and find out more.