If you’re like most people, you put a lot of trust in the medical professionals you consult. You might spend some time Googling your condition, but you tend to accept your doctor’s treatment recommendations.
This strategy can backfire when your doctor withholds information. Consciously or unconsciously, doctors can manipulate your decision-making by limiting the treatment options they discuss with you or failing to fully explain the risks of a specific treatment.
Contact D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, when your doctor did not share the downsides of treatment and you suffered unexpected health consequences. We have a long track record of success pursuing Connecticut failure to warn medical malpractice cases. Our skilled medical malpractice attorneys will work diligently to hold the doctor accountable and obtain the compensation you deserve.
The right to determine the type of medical treatment you will receive is one of the most important rights you have. Every person has an individual idea of what is most important to them and what they find difficult to tolerate. People have the right to accept and decline medical treatments in accordance with their own personal values and priorities.
Most patients have little medical knowledge and depend on the professionals they consult to explain treatments and how the treatment will impact their lifestyle. Using that knowledge, patients have the right to choose whether to proceed with the treatment or not.
To ensure that patients have the information they need to make appropriate decisions for themselves, the law has developed the concept of informed consent. A doctor or other medical professional commits medical malpractice when they perform a procedure or initiate treatment without the patient’s informed consent. If you believe you were treated without your informed consent, contact a Connecticut failure to warn attorney at D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, to discuss your case.
Anytime a medical professional believes an invasive procedure or treatment is necessary, they must explain the proposed treatment or procedure to the patient. They must explain their recommendation, provide information about alternative treatments, discuss potential risks and complications and discuss the likely outcome if you decline any treatment. This process is called obtaining your informed consent.
Your healthcare professional—a doctor, dentist, or podiatrist—has an obligation to obtain your informed consent. They cannot have a nurse or staff person conduct the informed consent conversation. This is because you must have the opportunity to ask questions about the procedure or treatment and receive satisfactory answers based on the provider’s training, knowledge, and experience.
Medical professionals are typically busy and may try to rush the conversation. They are often biased toward a specific treatment and might downplay its risks or neglect to mention viable alternatives. When a doctor mishandles the informed consent conversation, they could be liable for malpractice if the treatment or procedure goes wrong.
A medical professional’s failure to fully explain the risks, benefits, and alternatives is always wrong, but it is not always malpractice. To win a failure to warn medical malpractice case in Connecticut, our lawyers must prove several elements.
First, they must establish that information was not provided to you that a reasonable patient would have found material to making a decision to proceed with the course of treatment.. Second, they must show that you would have made a different decision if you had been fully informed. And third, they must demonstrate that the decision you made led to harm that wouldn’t have happened if you’d made a different decision.
When there is clear evidence of all three elements, you could bring a medical malpractice lawsuit against the provider for failure to warn. Although Connecticut General Statutes § 52-190c requires mediation for all medical malpractice cases before a court will schedule a trial, often this is not enforced. Regardless, most cases are mediated by the agreement of the parties and a mutually agreeable mediator is selected. A mediation is beneficial because the expense and uncertainty of a trial is avoided. If the mediation is not successful, the case will proceed to trial and usually before a jury.
When a healthcare provider doesn’t fully explain your treatment alternatives, they deprive you of your right to make decisions regarding your health. The way the provider presents your alternatives can have an inappropriate influence over your choice.
You can pursue a Connecticut failure to warn medical malpractice case when your provider didn’t present adequate information, and you made a choice that harmed you. These cases can be challenging, so working with experienced lawyers is critical.
Contact the legal team at D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, for help. We offer free consultations remotely or in-person. Reach out today to schedule a meeting.
