Malpractice & Informed Consent Documents
Can I Sue For Medical Malpractice if I signed an Informed Consent Document?
An informed consent document is essentially a thorough description of a procedure as it relates to a particular patient. While it may seem like the primary purpose of these documents is to inform a patient, they are actually designed to protect the medical institution and its practitioners from any liability. But you should know that signing an informed consent document does not automatically remove your right to sue in the event of an injury.
A basic informed consent document should contain the following elements:
- A description of the medical condition being treated by the procedure.
- A description of the purpose of the procedure.
- A description of the proposed treatment or procedure, including any potential side-effects.
- A discussion of known risks, including:
- Conditions which might make the procedure dangerous to a particular patient.
- Potential benefits of the procedure.
- Possible alternatives to the procedure and their known benefits, risks, and side-effects.
- A discussion of possible problems that could arise should the patient choose not to undergo the procedure.
- Disclosure that the procedure may involve unforeseeable risks.
- Acknowledgment that the patient can opt out of the procedure now or at any time in the future without sacrificing his or her right to current or future medical treatment.
Essentially, the informed consent document should make sure the patient can make an informed decision about his or her procedure.
In order to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit against a medical professional even though an informed consent document was signed, the plaintiff must apply three standards: the reasonable physician standard, the subjective patient standard, and the reasonable person standard.
The reasonable physician standard concerns what a typical physician would say to a patient about the procedure in question. This helps a jury determine what a physician should have disclosed in an informed consent document.
The subjective patient standard asks what the particular patient in question would want to know about a procedure in order to make an informed decision. Obviously, this standard can be difficult to apply and must be thoroughly considered on a case-by-case basis.
The reasonable person standard asks whether or not an average person would have undergone the procedure had he or she known what the plaintiff knew about the procedure.
If these standards are not met, a medical professional may be held liable for a patient's injuries even with an informed consent document. As you can imagine, all these conditions make medical malpractice cases very complicated. Without an attorney with extensive experience with medical malpractice law, you have little chance of success. Fortunately, our attorneys have been working with victims in medical malpractice cases for twenty years. If you are filing a medical malpractice claim, contact the Dallas medical malpractice lawyers at Grossman Law Offices and make sure you get the compensation you deserve.
What is the purpose of an informed consent document?
What do informed consent documents cover?
$75,000.00
$30,000.00
$2,700.00
$300,000.00
$120,000.00
$9,807.00
$125,055.00
$41,684.00
$435.00
$70,000.00
$23,100.00
$600.00
$225,000.00
$95,000.00
$2,500.00
$41,000.00
$13,666.00
$50.00
$187,500.00
$61,875.00
$2,500.00
$50,000.00
$20,000.00
$348.00
$40,000.00
$13,333.00
$50.00
$180,000.00
$38,333.00
$138.00