Let’s say you are giving birth, or you are present when your significant other is giving birth. As the two of you struggle through labor — though to be fair, one person is dealing with a whole lot more than the other — the doctors eventually reach a point where they believe that a C-section is the best course of action to ensure a healthy birth. However, this is just a recommendation. You decide against the C-section because you want to have a natural birth.
Eventually the doctors on hand override your decision and give you the C-section anyway. Here’s the question: should doctors be allowed to do that? And if something goes wrong, can they be held liable for any complications?
This is the case that will be heard soon after a woman who rejected a C-section was given one anyway because doctors overruled her decision. The baby was born in good health, but the mother suffered an injury to her bladder as a result of the procedure. She sued the hospital for the pressure she was put under by the doctors to have the C-section, and that her decision was ultimately overruled.
Even though the doctors had the best intentions, overruling a patient like this is a scary idea. What if someone didn’t want to have heart surgery, but surgeons pushed the procedure through anyway? What if any surgery could just be “forced” like this because the doctors have “good intentions?” Medical negligence can not only hurt the patient physically, but it can drain the patient mentally and financially. That is unacceptable, and the people or institutions at fault need to be held accountable.
Source: silive.com, “Staten Island University Hospital sued over C-section, report says,” Maura Grunlund, May 19, 2014