Can You Still Sue If You Signed a Consent Form?

We’ve all been in the unenviable position of lying in a hospital bed or gurney while a medical provider hands you a stack of medical consent forms or page after page of electronic consent documents to sign and initial before undergoing a medical procedure.

Much of it contains legal and medical jargon that the average person doesn’t have time to read and may not understand, but does signing a medical consent form mean you can’t file a medical malpractice lawsuit if something goes terribly wrong? Fortunately, no. Signing a medical consent does not sign away your right to a lawsuit for a doctor’s medical malpractice. Contact our medical malpractice attorney in Chicago if you need assistance.

What Does a Medical Consent Form Really Mean?

It’s an unfortunately common misconception that signing a medical consent form forfeits the patient’s right to a medical malpractice lawsuit. In truth, these forms are not a liability waiver. Instead, they serve the following purpose:

• To ensure that you understand the exact nature and process of your medical procedure before the doctor begins the procedure or surgery
• To obtain your signature stating that you acknowledge the inherent risks of the procedure
• Listing all possible alternatives to the procedure and the potential outcomes of the alternatives, so you can make a fully informed decision

Finally, a medical consent form ensures that you are aware of the type of anesthesia administered and the delivery method used during the procedure.

A medical form giving your informed consent is meant to ensure that you’ve been fully informed as the patient about all risks, benefits, and potential complications involved in a medical procedure.

What a Medical Consent Form Does Not Do

Signing a medical consent form protects the provider from lawsuits arising from possible medical outcomes that are inherent to the procedure or the patient’s medical condition. It does not protect the doctor or the facility against lawsuits arising from injuries or worsened medical outcomes caused by the doctor’s negligence or mistake. A doctor’s error is not an inherent risk of surgery. For example, a surgeon could be held liable for surgical errors such as the following, that are NOT part of the inherent risk:

• Accidentally cutting an adjoining organ, blood vessel, or nerve
• Performing surgery on the wrong site, the wrong side, or the wrong patient
• Making a dosage error during anesthesia delivery
• Failing to monitor the patient’s blood pressure during surgery
• Failing to adequately monitor a post-surgical patient
• Prematurely discharging a surgical patient
• Transmitting a hospital-acquired infection to a patient due to contaminated surgical tools
• Leaving a surgical tool or gauze in a patient’s body cavity

Doctors, surgeons, and other medical providers have a legal duty of care to their patients. Suffering harm from a medical provider’s failure to uphold that duty is not part of medical consent and makes the negligent provider liable for damages such as medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering.

Understanding the Right to a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit In Illinois

Not every undesirable medical outcome is caused by medical malpractice. This is why doctors obtain informed consent before performing procedures. If a doctor fails to obtain a patient’s informed consent, it’s medical malpractice. Besides surgical errors and failure to obtain informed consent, other common causes of medical malpractice not covered by informed consent in Illinois or elsewhere include medication errors, misdiagnosis, and delayed diagnosis.