Medical Negligence, Battery, and the Doctrine of Informed Consent

A Supreme Court case provides the following facts: a patient suffered from severe back pain. Acting on his physician’s recommendation, he agreed to undergo spinal fusion surgery. During the early stages of the surgery, the surgeon discovered significant, thick scar tissue covering the nerve roots. The surgeon concluded that the scar tissue might be the source of the pain, expanded the planned procedure, and removed the scar tissue. Removing the scar tissue, as became clear after the surgery, caused harm to the patient.

In this lecture, we examine what constitutes medical negligence when informed consent is not properly obtained between the caregiver and the patient.