Personal Injury Law

Doctors Operating While on Probation Without Telling Patients - Informed Consent Should Disclose This - How to Protect Yourself from being the Victim of Medical Malpractice

By Benjamin J. Sansone, Esq.

As a patient you are entitled to informed consent before any medical procedure, generally, this included the specifics of the procedure, the risk factors, and the complication rates. This is a patent's way of protecting themselves from undergoing a procedure they may find too risky, but should also be a way of knowing the risk of medical malpractice via the doctor's competency. Many people may find it hard to believe, but doctors are people too, and people sometimes lie or conveniently fail to disclose past problems.

A St Louis Missouri doctor performed a colonoscopy on a local man who claims he almost died based on t he negligent performance of the procedure. More importantly, the Doctor was on probation for drug and alcohol abuse. A fact not disclosed to the patient, but should have been. A fact known by the hospital, but they allowed the doctor to perform surgery anyway. Probation after dosing off and becoming confused when treating patients; additionally, he was in drug rehab twice. See "FOX Files: Doctors on Probation".

I recently handled a Missouri medical malpractice case wherein a year into the case we finally got the doctor to disclose that his privileges were revoked at a local hospital, a fact he never disclosed to the patient or the family. Additionally, the doctor tried to conceal from us the fact that his license to practice medicine was restricted preventing him from performing gastric bypass and bariatric surgery in Missouri due to several deaths and serious complications that the Missouri Board of Healing Arts Disciplinary Commission found were the result of negligence and incompetence. The doctor knew it and the hospital knew it, but the gastric bypass patients and their families did not and this doctor performed 100s of complicated and high risk bariactric surgeries every year until he was restricted by the State preventing him from doing them at all, something the hospital would never do because it would cut into their bottom line. The family would have never known had they not contacted a Missouri Gastric Bypass Malpractice Lawyer.

How do you know of your surgeon is in good standing? Specifically ask him or her if they have ever been sued before, if they have ever had their license to practice medicine suspended, revoked, or restricted. Ask them if they have ever had their staff privileges suspended or revoked. Check them out through the Missouri Board of Healing Arts and actually call as many times the information is not seen online. Most doctors have a good track record, but their are a significant number that still practice that do not fully disclose or disclose at all their past problems.

Currently there is no law requiring a doctor to notify a patient of State disciplinary action. The State's excuse is that enforcement would be too difficult, what? enforcement too difficult so let's not even pass the law at all? Sounds like the medical field protecting their own to me, at every patients' risk.

Physician Background Check - HealthGrades.com

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Law Blog on November 28, 2007 (boomark / email).