Imagine waking up from surgery believing you underwent a completely different procedure than what you first had imagine. That's what Georgia Darviris had to experience in the winter of 2004. She gave consent for the doctor to perform a simple fissurectomy. After waking up, Darviris had been informed she underwent a hemorrhoidectomy. A completely different surgery. She was given a spinal anesthetic before her preformed surgery, therefore she was awake. She claimed that a nurse nor her doctor, Petros, gave any indication during the surgery that she wasn't receiving the planned fissurectomy. She argued that she would not have consented to this procedure due to a family member having major complications with the same surgery. After receiving…
In Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital, the patient went under anesthetic for an examination of her stomach, and woke up with her uterus removed; in Mohr v. Williams, the patient went under anesthetic for an operation on her right ear, but the surgeon operated on her left ear instead. Each of these physicians pulled a bait and switch; they got informed consent for one procedure, but then acted on a different procedure in a different part of the patient’s body. This is wrongful and unlawful as the patients did not, and could not, give informed consent about the new procedures. After going to court, all physicians involved said that they had done nothing wrong or beyond the consent given. Both women paid for the services provided.…
The first legal issue in this case is patient consent. To perform any medical intervention or move ahead with a given treatment doctors need the authorization of the patient or his legal guardian. If doctors perform the treatment without this consent they could be charged for battery or negligence. In this case, Mr. Jones verbalized he do not want any intervention and that he wants his body intact then doctors cannot undertake the proposed treatment. However, Mr. Jones daughter disagrees.…
The Brewster v. University Hospital is a case that deals with informed consent, in this case the plaintiff seemed to be wronged in the sense that their child was not given the best opportunity for a full recovery. The defendant, however, believes no wrong has been done since the professionals are certain that the diagnosis was best for the patient. The argument develops in the sense that the parents of the patient were not informed of all the different diagnosis, and how this illness could affect their child’s brain development. The patient suffered from hyperbilirubinemia, or jaundice, which seems to be of a normal occurrence for many infants, but it must be controlled because high levels of bilirubin causes great damage to the brain. This was part of the information the Brewster’s were not informed of, along with the fact that there is a much more aggressive form of diagnosis for this illness, which is blood…
The client is a 46 year old hispanic woman. She is a single parent of two child. She has a 17 and 14 year old sons. Her 14 year old son was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 2. Her ex-ex husband was deported back to Mexico and because she wanted her children to have a different life and education she decided to stay here. The client feels guilty over making that decision because she has not be able to devote as much time with her children as she would like. Furthermore, with her 14 year old being autistic it has taken a lot of attention off her 17 year old. The client states that the relationship with her 17 year old son is strained and in fact he has told her that all she cares about is his brother and not him. The…
Grant case brings up the issue of informed consent. In this case the surgeon, Dr. Grant informed the patient, Mr. Cobbs that he had an intractable peptic duodenal ulcer, which required surgery. In this case the surgeon failed to inform the patient of the risks associated with the initial surgery. The legal principle of informed consent is the patient has the right to know about all of the risks and benefits of a certain medical procedure before making a decision to either accept or unaccept that procedure. The court found for Dr. Grant, and they point out that there was no evidence to indicate that Mr. Cobbs known about the adverse effects of the surgery, he would not have consented to the operation. The plaintiff could not prove negligence was a result of the lack of informed consent. The complications associated with the surgery were expected risks therefore negligence was not present. However, I really think the surgeon should inform the patient of all the risks and the side effects of the…
I felt this case was of negligence and malpractice, how can someone complain about their discomfort, provide relevant medical history and not get the proper diagnosis. They could have provided a more I depth diagnosis or allowed for a longer observation period. Hospitals often struggle to find a balance between profit and patient care. If the profit margin was not the first priority, then maybe we can avoid similar cases like this. It seems that the struggle for tort reform in finding a good balance between protecting healthcare institutions and at the same time allow for patients the opportunity to pursue compensation when malpractice does occur is…
Nursing students have a scope of practice specified in the Nurse Practice Act (NPA) of the State of Nevada. We are required to provide treatment to our patient based these scope practice. Practicing any activity out of our scope is a violation of law. Some of our scope of practice includes “nursing student … shall identify himself or herself by his or her appropriate title,” “a nursing student may, as an apprentice nurse, perform those tasks which the nursing student has successfully demonstrated in his or her program of education,” “there is a formal procedure for the nursing student to refuse to perform any task until he or she is comfortable with his or her ability to do so safely,” and others. I complied with NPA’s scope of practice…
Informed consent should always be used as it protects the health and rights of the patients and protects the hospital from lawsuits.…
This paper describes the events that took place concerning Prosenjit Poddar and Tatiana Tarasoff, as well as the ruling in the case of Tarasoff v. Board of Regents of the University of California. The ruling was not a favorable one at first, leaving psychologists feeling this would breach their patients trust. Confidentiality is crucial in a therapist-client relationship. “Legislators reacted to therapists’ concerns regarding the conflict of duties and enacted exceptions to confidentiality statuses when warning was necessary to protect third parties” (“Confidentiality after Tarasoff,” 1994, para. 9).…
There have been concerns raised surrounding informed consents obtained during the hospitalization of James Roberts. Consents must be obtained from the patient or person authorized to consent on the patient’s behalf (Pozgar, 2016, p. 326). The following is a review of the surgical consents obtained during the recent admission.…
6. It is always best for the person actually treating the patient to seek the patient’s consent. However, you may seek consent on behalf of colleagues if you are capable of performing the procedure in question, or if you have been specially trained to seek consent for this procedure.…
Consent also has a legal angle. Patients have the right to decide about what they do or what others can do to their lives and their bodies. Therefore, obtaining consent is necessary for anything other than a routine physical examination and investigation. Informed consent prior medical intervention protects the doctor and the hospital in which he or she works from certain forms of litigation, because the medical intervention was legal, and carried out after authorization by the patient. However, legal protection of the informed consent does not protect the doctor in case of errors and malpractice. The primary care physician obtained informed consent from Mrs. R and I also take the patient’s consent for conducting the interview since any act done without permission, is considered as medical battery. Additionally,…
It’s very evident that judging others is a part of human nature. We all have done it. Transamerica is a movie that deals with a man by the name of Stanley who faces many obstacles on his journey as a transsexual. The movie specifically shows how much difficulty a person who is interested in getting a male-to-female sexual reassignment surgery faces. Not only this, there are many medical ethics related concepts that go hand in hand with this particular movie.…
Every day patients put the trust in nurses and physicians hands that her or she will receive the best care and will be informed completely of all implications and future consequences that may occur. The problem in health care today is that is a business with an assembly line, less time is spent with the patient. This gives the patient fewer opportunities to ask questions, nurses less time to be a patient advocate and more risk to cause harm. One of the biggest issues in the surgery arena is patients are pre-medicated and by time the nurse arrives to interview the patient and discuss their consent they are impaired. I understand that the consent was already signed and witnessed, but time and time again I deal with patients that truly do not…