Winning An Informed Consent Medical Malpractice Case In New York: Experienced Kingston Medical Malpractice Attorney Discusses

An experienced New York Medical Malpractice attorney is necessary in order for a victim of medical malpractice to successfully recover compensation for his or her injury.  One common issue in medical malpractice cases a plaintiff may have to prove is that there was a lack of informed consent given by the medical professional.

In New York, informed consent is defined by New York Public Health Law § 2805-d which describes lack of informed consent as being, “the failure of the person providing the professional treatment or diagnosis to disclose to the patient such alternatives thereto and the reasonably foreseeable risks and benefits involved as a reasonable medical, dental or podiatric practitioner under similar circumstances would have disclosed, in a manner permitting the patient to make a knowledgeable evaluation”.

While this is limited to cases involving non-emergency treatment or diagnostic procedures that invade a person’s body, it is important for patients to know that they have a right to be fully informed as to the consequences of a medical procedure as well as alternatives to the proposed procedure.  This is the essence of a medical malpractice action based on the lack of informed consent.  That is, the patient would not have undergone the treatment if the patient had been fully informed as to the consequences of the treatment and of the possible alternative treatments available.

An experienced New York Medical Malpractice Attorney knows that if such a lack of informed consent caused the patient’s injury, than the patient may be entitled to compensation.  The nuance that an experienced attorney will be able to investigate goes beyond whether or not the medical procedure was performed according to acceptable medical standards.

Under the lack of informed consent cause of action, a procedure may have been performed adequately, but the side effects of the procedure that have harmed the patient were not fully explained, and had they been explained, the patient would not have undergone the procedure.  Moreover, the patient may be a person in a special class of persons who require additional protections under informed consent.  That is, children, the elderly, or mentally incompetent persons may require a different form of informed consent as compared to the “typical” patient.

The experienced New York Medical Malpractice Attorney will have the competence to know where to look, who to ask, and the proper questions to ask of all the relevant parties in order to gauge whether or not the medical professional fully satisfied the requirements of proper informed consent.

But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.