Going to the doctor shouldn’t be a scary experience. After all, medical professionals have received extensive amounts of education and training to prepare them for their positions. As comforting as that may sound, though, the sad reality is that doctors and nurses in Kentucky make errors that put innocent patients at risk of being seriously injured or killed. Such acts of medical malpractice can occur in several ways, including surgical and medication errors, as well as failure to diagnose.
However, there is another mistake medical professionals can make that can prove deadly: failing to obtain informed consent. Before embarking on a course of treatment, medical professionals must obtain informed consent from the patient. Providing informed consent includes discussing the diagnosis at hand, the potential treatment options, the risks associated with each treatment option, and the risks of not pursuing any form of treatment. Only once this information conveyed can a patient be deemed capable of making a medical decision that is right for him or her.
In some instances, though, doctors either fail to obtain informed consent, or they go beyond the scope of the consent given. This can have disastrous consequences for patients, including death. Sadly, this often leaves surviving family members with significant damages that can be economic and noneconomic in nature. In these circumstances, oftentimes the only way to obtain accountability and recover compensation for those losses is to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit that is based on a claim of medical malpractice.
Of course, proving inadequate or missing informed consent can be a challenging process. Therefore, surviving family members of those lost to acts of medical malpractice should engage in thorough discovery with the help of a professional, thereby uncovering all the facts they need to develop a solid wrongful death claim.
