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Patients preparing for surgery have to sign complex consent forms. Most of the time, they do not actually read the documents but instead rapidly sign them without understanding the implications of the document or the risks involved in the surgery.
Issues with patients failing to read and understand consent forms are so common that the American Medical Association now provides guidance on how to make surgical consent forms more understandable for patients. Those reviewing consent documents may want to check carefully for the presence of certain common terms that individual surgeons and modern hospitals may use to try and deny accountability for egregious acts of medical malpractice.
1. Lists of known and accepted complications
A surgical consent form may include a laundry list of potential complications and side effects, some of which are only likely in scenarios where the team performing the operation makes a major mistake. Forms may include excessive blood loss, significant tissue damage, infections and even death as known and accepted risks that the patient must acknowledge to undergo the procedure.
2. No guarantees or assurances have been made
Health care providers sometimes explain side effects and common complications to patients. Other times, they hand patients a pamphlet and tell them that the surgery is straightforward, so there’s no real reason to worry about potential complications.
Despite medical professionals often providing blanket assurances to coax patients into consenting to surgical procedures, the consent paperwork signed before the procedure may claim that the patient is aware that there is no implied guarantee of success or assurances regarding the outcome of the procedure.
3. Additional procedures may be deemed necessary
When major surgical errors occur, such as leaving an item behind inside a patient’s body, the patient may need to undergo a revision procedure. By including a blanket statement that additional care may be required, medical facilities and professionals seek to sidestep the potential financial and legal liability that comes from committing an error that later requires a revision procedure.
Overly-broad and confusing surgical consent forms may not truly protect medical professionals. Especially when they claim that side effects were not a concern or asserted that they have a perfect track record of success before the patient’s operation, the misleading information that they provided and the failure to disclose the risks involved accurately could give the patient reason to take legal action.
Those who were truly unaware of the potential risks involved in a surgery may not be able to provide informed consent to undergo a surgical procedure. Reviewing communication records and key paperwork with a medical malpractice attorney can help those affected by errors during operations explore if a malpractice lawsuit might be an option.