Want More Proof Of Medical Malpractice?

Here's a quote from www.nurse-anesthesia.org that a friend of mine gleaned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"That's just it. It was a surgical procedure and I was doing the IV sedation with Versed and Fentanyl. I said to the doctor we do not have a signed consent. While I was filling it out he inserted the biopsy needle into the patients abdomen!! He never said one word to the patient, he didn't even introduce himself. When we were taking the patient back to ICU she complained bitterly, and rightfully so, that the doctor had not said a word to her and that she didn't even know his name. In his notes he goes into detail about how he explained the procedure, risks, etc and provided the patient an opportunity to ask questions, and that he then had the patient sign the consent. This doctor is getting off scot free without even a slap on his wrist.

I was so stunned by what he had done. I felt caught between a rock and a hard place. Here's this young person with a needle in their liver. No permit. I truly did not know what to do. Stop? Make him remove it? Get the patient alert and explain to them what the doctor had done and then ask them to sign the consent? Knowing that the patient had verbally acknowledged that they knew what was going to occur and they were doing fine, the procedure would be done in a matter of minutes. It all happened so fast.

Working in radiology the management does not understand the implications of what this doctor did by performing the procedure without a consent while knowing what he should have done and by lying in his charting that he had done what he what he didn't do. I think that is very serious. They don't see it that way."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

My surgeon said the same things about how "he explained the procedure, risks, etc and provided the patient an opportunity to ask questions, and that he then had the patient sign the consent."  (you can see his remarks in my medical records)  My doctor "got off scot free without even a slap on his wrist" as well.  As far as *I* know my doctor never was at the hospital in the first place, let alone there prior to surgery.

 

My take on this is that the management DOES understand the implications of the behavior and CHOOSES to ignore it because there is almost never a successful malpractice suit that can be brought.  They don't care!  Besides which there is money to be made by doing things to patients without their consent.  They are all so protected that they don't even bother with silly things like informed consent.  What's to stop them?  (not a rhetorical question, I'm serious, WHAT'S TO STOP THEM?)

 

The doc in this story probably felt that the patient was already under the influence of Versed and so he could dispense will all niceties like informed consent or identifying himself.  Versed is SUCH a bad drug and it's not just bad for the patient, it's bad for medical practitioners as well and leads to this kind of anti-social arrogance.