Does Signing A Consent Form Waive My Rights To File A Lawsuit For Medical Malpractice?

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Does Signing A Consent Form Waive My Rights To File A Lawsuit For Medical Malpractice?

Signing a consent form in and of itself does not waive your rights. It is possible that the consent form does not contain all of the relevant information that it should or it may have been signed without adequate explanation. Even if you signed a consent form, you did not consent to substandard medical care. A doctor`s failure to meet the acceptable standard of care is not the same as consenting to the normal risks of a procedure.

A physician owes his patient the duty to disclose in a reasonable manner all significant medical information that he possessed or reasonably should have possessed that would have been material to an intelligent decision by the patient regarding a course of treatment. The information the physician reasonably should possess is that information which is possessed by the average qualified physician practicing in the specialty of the physician at that time. Materiality is the significance a reasonable person would attach to the disclosed information in deciding whether to submit or not to submit to surgery or treatment. The appropriate information to be disclosed may include the nature of the patient`s condition, the benefits to be reasonably expected, the irreversibility of the procedure, the likely result of no treatment, and the available alternatives, including their risks and benefits.

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