You may have a medical malpractice claim if your doctor failed to explain the risks of a proposed treatment and you underwent the procedure without fully understanding the potential consequences. As a patient, you have the right to make informed decisions about your healthcare, which generally means your doctor must disclose any significant risks before you agree to treatment.
So, what if you underwent treatment not knowing of the risks involved?
In some cases, failure to obtain a patient’s informed consent can constitute medical malpractice.
If you have a medical malpractice claim, you can hire a lawyer to help you seek just compensation for the medical bills, pain and suffering, and other losses you have incurred (and will incur) as a result of your treatment.
When talking about a doctor’s failure to explain the risks involved with a particular procedure or medication, the key issue is whether the doctor’s failure led to a lack of informed consent. As a general rule, doctors have an obligation to obtain patients’ informed consent prior to treatment, and this includes informing the patient of all pertinent risks.
While this is the general rule, there are exceptions. As a result, failure to explain the risks of treatment will not constitute medical malpractice in all cases. For example, circumstances in which a doctor may not be required to discuss risks with a patient include:
A doctor may not have reason to be aware of the risks involved with a particular procedure or medication if these risks are not generally known within the medical community. For example, if a doctor prescribes a medication and the pharmaceutical company behind the medication has not reported a particular risk (and the risk has not been identified in case studies or peer-reviewed medical journals), then failing to discuss the risk with a patient may not constitute medical malpractice.
Ultimately, every situation is unique, and determining whether a medical malpractice claim is warranted requires a case-specific assessment.
Another key aspect of medical malpractice claims is that they must involve patient harm. If your doctor failed to inform you of the risks associated with a proposed course of treatment but you did not suffer any adverse effects, then you may not have any damages to pursue.
In this context, harm can take many different forms. Some examples of complications from uninformed treatment decisions that may warrant medical malpractice claims include:
Again, these are just examples. Ultimately, if you experienced any unexpected adverse effects after undergoing treatment and you believe that your doctor should have provided you with additional warnings, it will be worth talking to a medical malpractice lawyer about your legal rights.
With that said, it is also important to consider the decision you would have made had you been adequately informed. If you would have undergone treatment even knowing of the risks involved, the outcome may have been the same regardless of your doctor’s failure to warn. On the other hand, if you would have decided that the risk wasn’t worth the potential benefits of treatment, then you could have a clear claim for medical malpractice based on your doctor’s failure to obtain informed consent.
If you think you may have a medical malpractice claim based on your doctor’s failure to obtain informed consent, what should you do now? In this situation, there are two important steps you should take promptly.
First, you should seek treatment for your new condition from a different medical provider. If you have a medical malpractice claim, you generally do not want to go back to your old doctor.
Second, you should talk to a medical malpractice lawyer about filing a claim. This costs you nothing and, if you have a claim, seeking the compensation you deserve could be critical to your recovery.
If you would like to know more about filing a medical malpractice claim based on your doctor’s failure to discuss risks with you prior to treatment, we invite you to get in touch.
Contact Coplan + Crane today online or at (312) 982-0588 for a FREE case evaluation. Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers help clients across Illinois, including Chicago, Oak Park, Rockford, and other areas. We handle wrongful death cases on a contingency basis, which means you don’t pay unless we win.
