If a doctor has demonstrated negligence, the affected patient would have the right to initiate a medical malpractice lawsuit. Now suppose that a given patient had received unnecessary surgery. Would that act qualify as an example of negligence?
Not all unnecessary operations can become grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit.
The personal injury lawyer in St John’s knows that the operation could be grounds for such a lawsuit, if the physician had made an incorrect diagnosis, and that same diagnosis was the reason for the surgery. It could become the basis for legal action, if the physician had failed to obtain the patient’s consent, before proceeding with the operation.
It could invite the filing of a complaint for a medical malpractice lawsuit, if the surgeon had operated on the incorrect part of the patient’s body. It could invite the patient’s pursuit of legal action, if the surgeon had obtained money, after urging the patient to undergo the operation.
A doctor’s failure to complete all the standard aspects of a given operation might also be grounds for a lawsuit.
That would certainly be true, if a patient, or a patient’s health insurance provider had assumed that the surgeon had completed every aspect, and had paid for a thorough and complete operation. In that case, the patient, or perhaps the patient’s parents would have requested the surgery, in the belief that it would be done properly.
Testimony from experts becomes the key to winning a charge of negligence, from a patient that has received an unnecessary operation.
An expert could act as a witness in court, and explain to the jury the standard approach to the patient’s problem. An expert should know an important fact: Whether or not surgery was what the medical community viewed as the standard approach.
An expert could also become the logical source of a second opinion, if a patient wanted to check on the standard method for dealing with his or her medical problem. Smart doctors would insist on a visit to such an expert, if a patient, or a patient’s family hoped to learn whether or not some suggested surgery should be allowed to proceed, as planned.
An expert would not give his or her second opinion until after studying the patient’s medical records, examining the same patient, studying the doctor’s findings, reviewing the recent research on the patient’s condition, and considering the known risks. That is why a smart physician would not share records with just any doctor that has been asked to offer his or her second opinion.
In the absence of the first doctor’s cooperation, a second opinion would not hold much value. That is why most doctors want any professional’s view of their own decision to come from a recognized expert.