PLAINTIFF’S SIGNING A CONSENT FORM PRIOR TO SURGERY DID NOT REQUIRE DISMISSAL OF THE LACK OF INFORMED CONSENT CAUSE OF ACTION (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the medical malpractice, lack of informed consent and battery causes of action should not have been dismissed. Plaintiff alleged defendant doctor operated on the wrong site. Defendant testified she removed a cyst from plaintiff’s left leg and plaintiff alleged defendant should have removed an abscess. The court noted that plaintiff’s signing a consent form did not require dismissal of the lack of informed consent cause of action:

As to the lack of informed consent cause of action, the deposition testimony of the plaintiff and the defendant and the generic consent form signed by the plaintiff presented triable issues of fact as to whether the defendant informed the plaintiff about the procedure, the alternatives thereto, and the reasonably foreseeable risks and benefits of the proposed treatment and the alternatives … . “[T]he fact that the plaintiff signed a consent form does not establish [the defendant’s] entitlement to judgment as a matter of law” where, as here, the form was generic, and beyond a barebones handwritten notation of the areas of the body, “Left Bartholin/Left Inguinal Abscess,” “did not contain any details about the operation” … . The consent form does not even indicate the procedure to be performed, but merely lists an area of the body, “Left Bartholin,” and a condition, “Left Inguinal Abscess.” Preciado v Ravins, 2021 NY Slip Op 00441, Second Dept 1-27-21