Medical Malpractice & Informed Consent

Posted on March 17, 2016

When a patient undergoes a recommended surgery, he or she is generally given a stack of papers to sign beforehand. In general, those papers will include a few pages consisting of what’s known as “informed consent”. Quite simply, informed consent is a set of risks and consequences that can occur with a particular surgery…patients should be keenly aware of these risks before they move forward and sign on the dotted line.

All too often, our medical malpractice lawyers receive calls from patients that have suffered serious permanent injuries for things that they signed off on but were not aware of. In more unfortunate circumstances, informed consent sheets are not even detailed enough to properly educate a patient on what can happen to them during or after the surgery they are about to have.

An Iowa woman recently filed a $15 million medical malpractice lawsuit against a university hospital for negligence and lack of appropriate informed consent. The then 52-year-old went into surgery for a benign tumor removal that was causing her hearing loss. While under the knife, a main artery that supplies blood to the brain was accidentally cut. The woman went on to suffer a severe stroke that has left her permanently disabled and in need of round the clock, extremely expensive care. This incident in particular emphasizes the importance of informed consent in avoiding a medical malpractice claim.

Before you opt into a procedure, be sure you thoroughly read your surgical consent form and ask your doctors and healthcare providers to discuss any worrisome risks and statistics with you before you sign your name. To read more about the Iowa medical malpractice lawsuit mentioned above, click here.

New Jersey / Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers Weiss & Paarz have spent decades recovering compensation for lost wages, pain / suffering, and future medical expenses after a patient’s life is destroyed by an unexpected mistake during surgery. If you or a loved one feel they have a potential surgical malpractice claim, call our firm today for your consultation (1-800-952-8444) or fill out the contact form on our contact us page. We do not charge any fees to our clients unless we win compensation for them.