Patients rely on doctors, nurses, surgeons, therapists, and other healthcare providers to provide appropriate and reasonable medical care, which includes explaining medical conditions and the treatments and risks associated with them. If you put your trust in a doctor or other medical professional who withheld information and acted negligently, you may be able to pursue a medical malpractice claim for the harm they caused.
The medical malpractice attorneys at D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, have been helping Litchfield residents navigate complex failure-to-warn cases for over 100 combined years. Our skilled lawyers are a trusted source of guidance and representation for injured patients, building a track record of success in helping our clients recover compensation for their medical malpractice damages.
Patients in Litchfield and throughout Connecticut are asked to give consent before undergoing surgery or certain treatment procedures. The consent must be what’s referred to as informed consent, which means that the doctor must warn the patient of any material risks associated with the procedure.
Physicians have a duty to disclose the risks that a reasonably prudent person would believe are significant when making a decision about a medical procedure. Connecticut requires that doctors:
When doctors do not provide thorough and sufficient information, the patient cannot make an informed decision about their care.
If your physician did not inform you of your options or share the known risks of a procedure with you, and you sustained an injury as a result of the procedure, their negligence could be medical malpractice. Navigating medical malpractice claims in Connecticut is challenging, and you need an attorney with experience in these types of cases to maximize your chances of success.
In order to establish liability in Litchfield failure-to-warn malpractice claims, the injured patient must prove that the doctor failed to disclose a known risk and that this failure led to an injury. The court or a jury will determine if disclosing the risk would have caused a reasonably prudent person to refuse the procedure. It’s important to keep in mind when preparing a failure-to-warn case that how your decision may have changed if provided sufficient information is not the standard. The standard in these cases is whether or not, when faced with the withheld information or risks, a reasonably prudent person would have changed their mind about the procedure.
There are numerous statutory requirements that dictate how a medical malpractice case must be handled in Connecticut. For example, the injured party must obtain a written opinion letter from a similar medical provider before proceeding with the claim. Additionally, mediation is mandatory in medical malpractice claims, including failure-to-warn cases. Despite this mandate, mediation is often arranged by agreement after substantial discovery has been completed through depositions and written questions.
Contact the attorneys at D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, today to schedule a free consultation to discuss your Litchfield failure-to-warn medical malpractice case.
