Woman Recovers Significant Damages as a Result of Negligent Facial Surgery Conducted by Resident Without Consent
A woman recovered damages from a doctor who performed a negligent facial surgery on her after she consented to have two other doctors perform the procedure. As a result of the negligent surgery, the woman was required to attend an out-patient clinic for an entire year in order to treat her post-operative condition.
She had given her consent to have a specific doctor perform the surgery. While the consent was broad enough to allow other doctors to participate in the operation, it was still understood that the main doctor, with whom she had signed the consent would be performing the surgery. It was not until Sommers & Roth obtained the medical records that it was discovered a different doctor, a resident (trainee), had performed the operation.
Initially, the resident resisted being added as a defendant to the lawsuit. He claimed that an action against him had to be started within one year after the incident. The court ruled in favour of the plaintiff patient on this point, since she did not even know, throughout the year she attended the hospital as an outpatient in order to undo some of the damage to her facial nerves, that there had even been a third doctor operating on her. For this reason, Sommers & Roth would have had no reason to investigate the resident doctor until clues were found of his involvement when the lawsuit first started.
Sommers Roth & Elmaleh Professional Corporation has over 40 years of experience in medical malpractice litigation in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ontario, and across Canada.
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Disclaimer: Past results of cases and recoveries by our medical malpractice/medical negligence lawyers against hospitals, doctors, midwives, nurses and other healthcare professionals are not necessarily indicative of future results. The amounts recovered and other litigation outcomes will vary according to the facts in individual cases.
