Almost every type of medical procedure carries some risk with it. Patients are permitted to make decisions about what risks they are willing to accept with every type of medical treatment. This is the heart of the concept of informed consent, and the failure of a health care providers to obtain informed consent from a patient before performing a procedure on the patient can be the basis of a medical malpractice lawsuit, if the patient is injured by a risk which was not discussed with the patient before the treatment was rendered. In order to establish a medical malpractice case based on the failure to obtain informant, the injured party must show:
That the average health care professional would have disclosed the risk, benefits, and alternatives to the procedure;
That the health care provider failed to disclose a risk, benefit, or alternative that other health care providers in his or her position would have;
That the patent was injured during the procedure as a result of the undisclosed risk;
That the patient would not have undergone the procedure had he been fully advised of the risk.
