In the medical industry, “informed consent” refers to the idea of a patient agreeing to a medical procedure or other after being fully informed about the process, what it entails, and how it can affect future outcomes.
However, informed consent isn’t always possible because patients don’t always get the full picture. Sometimes, key details or potential risks are left out of patient briefings for a variety of reasons (tired nurses and fear that the patient will make the “wrong” choice, for example).
Let’s take a look at potential issues that can arise when a doctor or medical practice fails to receive full informed consent from their patients before an operation.
Patient Doesn’t Understand the Risks Involved
Imagine a patient who goes to see a doctor about some heart problems they’ve been having. The doctor determines that the patient has stable coronary artery disease, and the two options are medication or surgery. The medication has a 60% chance of working, while surgery would be 100% effective.
The doctor doesn’t believe in “erring on the side of caution” and chooses not to tell the patient about the possibility of medication. The patient believes that surgery is the only option available and undergoes an operation.
All surgeries, especially those that involve anesthesia, carry certain risks. The patient would never have opted for a risky, expensive surgery if they knew that they could have tried to treat their condition with beta blockers or statins instead of going under the knife.
Chronic Pain, Debilitation, or Death
Sometimes surgeries or other procedures can lead to devastating long-term effects on a person’s health, which they never would have undertaken if they knew the risks involved. These can include heart attack, stroke, chronic pain, impairment, and even death.
Continuing on with the above example, let’s say the doctor doesn’t test the patient’s blood sugar and doesn’t know that he’s suffering from undiagnosed diabetes. Due to low blood sugar during the procedure, the patient suffered a severe stroke and woke up without the use of their left side.
Again, receiving informed consent would have prevented this, because the patient would have chosen the less risky option that was never presented. Choosing to conceal information to get the desired patient response might seem tempting in the moment, but medical practitioners must allow their patients to make their own choices.
Damages Trust Between Provider and Patient
Doctor-patient trust is vital for the medical industry as a whole. If people don’t trust their doctors, they may end up wasting valuable time seeking out a second opinion, or (more commonly) simply refuse to go back. This results in even worse outcomes, as minor issues can become more severe if left untreated.
If you went to the dentist to have a cavity filled and a friend who works at a different dental clinic later told you the procedure wasn’t necessary, would you trust that dentist or want to go back? Probably not.
A major surgery involves much more risk and potential for error, so you definitely wouldn’t want to go back to that doctor again, either. No one wants to go to a medical practice that’s more focused on upselling expensive procedures or that views their patients as numbers instead of people.
Additional Costs to Patients
Speaking of which, another direct result for patients is higher bills, which can come in many forms. First, the patient is paying for a major surgery that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of a $5 monthly co-pay at the local pharmacy.
The secondary effects of that unnecessary surgery include more time spent in the hospital, more time off work, and longer recovery periods. It can also include potential long-term care in the case of severe complications, like a mistake in a spinal surgery that results in a patient no longer being able to walk.
Children and Developmentally Disabled Individuals
We’ve talked a lot about concealing options from patients, but there’s another violation of informed consent that’s arguably even more unethical. It involves receiving consent for a procedure directly from a minor, someone who’s developmentally disabled, or another person with a legal guardian, without consulting their parents or guardian.
Informed consent is a difficult concept for some medical providers because patients without medical degrees might not always fully understand what’s going on and what’s being asked of them.
However, in these cases, the difference is more pronounced. The developmentally disabled, children, and other vulnerable populations have guardians and parents for a reason: they aren’t capable of making tough decisions on their own. They need help.
These people may be easier to “manipulate” into giving consent for the doctor’s preferred option, but it’s severely unethical to do so. A medical malpractice lawyer might be able to recover monetary damages, but they won’t be able to replace a child or disabled loved one if they provide consent for a risky procedure that goes wrong.
Complications Arising from Lack of Informed Consent
Informed consent is a vital part of the medical treatment process and must be used before a patient makes any decision about their care. Some medical professionals struggle with it, but they must learn to overcome their issues and allow their patients to decide which course of action they want, even if the doctor doesn’t agree with that choice.
Failure to fully inform patients of the risks involved, their possible options, or receiving approval from a person unable to provide consent (such as a child or adult with developmental disabilities) is both severely unethical and dangerous.
It can lead to decreased quality of life, chronic pain, severe injuries, long-term medical issues, and (in some cases) even death. A medical malpractice lawyer might be able to get you financial compensation, but they can’t replace a damaged limb or a loved one who was harmed or killed by a doctor’s decision not to seek informed consent.
If you or a loved one has been injured due to medical malpractice, get in touch with a team of attorneys fighting for injury victims and get the legal aid you need.
