What is Informed Consent
Informed consent means you voluntarily agree to a procedure, treatment, or research study after you are fully informed about its nature, potential risks, benefits, and alternatives. It gives you the knowledge you need to make an informed, independent decision about your care.
Healthcare providers are legally required to provide you with the information you need to give informed consent. When they don’t, and something goes wrong, that’s not just a medical mistake. That is a legal issue. If you were injured because a doctor or another medical professional did not explain the risks of a treatment or procedure, you may have a valid medical malpractice claim.
At Parham Smith & Archenhold LLC, our Greenville medical malpractice attorneys have helped numerous injured patients understand their rights and hold negligent healthcare providers accountable. If you believe your injury could’ve been avoided had you known more before your treatment, keep reading.
What You Need to Know About Informed Consent and Malpractice Claims in Greenville
Generally speaking, before a medical provider performs a procedure, they must give you enough information to help you make an informed decision. That means they need to explain:
- What the procedure is
- Why do they recommend it
- The risks involved
- Possible complications
- Reasonable alternatives, including doing nothing
The law doesn’t expect you to understand every medical term, but it does expect doctors to explain things in a way most people can understand. Doctors must give you the kind of information that an average patient would need to make a good decision. It’s not about what the doctor thought you knew. It’s about what a typical person would have understood had the doctor explained the risks clearly.
If you didn’t consent with full knowledge of the risks, and you were hurt from one of those undisclosed risks, that’s medical malpractice. Let’s say you have chronic back pain, and your surgeon recommends surgery. They tell you it’s routine but don’t mention that there’s a risk of permanent nerve damage, even though that risk is well-documented.
You agree to the procedure and end up with partial paralysis. You may have chosen a non-surgical alternative instead if you knew about that possibility. In this scenario, the failure to warn you about a serious complication can be a violation of informed consent and grounds for a malpractice lawsuit.
How a Greenville Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help After an Informed Consent Violation
It’s hard to know what went wrong when you’re dealing with the aftermath of a medical injury, let alone whether the doctor told you everything you needed to know. When you work with a Greenville medical malpractice attorney, they will investigate what the doctor said and didn’t say before your procedure. They’ll likewise review your medical records, talk to expert witnesses, and help determine if you truly gave informed consent or if that consent was incomplete, rushed, or never fully obtained.
If your Greenville medical malpractice lawyer can show that your doctor failed in that duty and you were hurt, they will pursue compensation for your medical costs, pain, suffering, lost income, and more. They will fight for accountability, not just for you, but to help protect future patients from the same negligence.
Seek Legal Guidance From Our Greenville Medical Malpractice Lawyers
You may have just signed a form, trusted your doctor, and hoped for the best. If that trust was broken and you suffered an injury, our Greenville medical malpractice attorneys can help. Reach Parham Smith & Archenhold LLC online or at 864-432-1796 for your complimentary consultation.