Patient Suffers Stroke: Wins Malpractice Claim Due to Lack of Informed Consent

Informed Consent

I have posted before about informed consent to medical treatment and why it is so important in medical malpractice claims. Unfortunately, these types of claims are very difficult to win.

What Does Informed Consent Have To Do With My Nova Scotia Medical Malpractice Claim?

“Mature” Children Can Refuse Medical Treatment: Supreme Court of Canada

Neck Manipulation Caused Stroke

That’s why I found a recent decision out of Newfoundland and Labrador very interesting.

A chiropractic patient recently won a difficult case against a local doctor alleging neck manipulation caused her stroke. The case was tried in St. John’s.

In Gallant v. Brake-Patten the patient, Ms. Gallant successfully sued her chiropractor. She claimed that she suffered a stroke after undergoing neck manipulation.

Justice Harrington accepted the plaintiff’s evidence that the chiropractor did not advise her of the risk of stroke. Harrington J. was also satisfied that Ms. Gallant would not have had the chiropractic treatment if she had known about the risk of stroke.

Finally, she was able to prove on the balance of probabilities that the neck manipulations actually caused her stroke. This is an issue that has been the subject of some debate among medical experts.

I have created a video explaining what informed consent is and why it is important in medical malpractice cases. You can watch it here or go to our video library to see this video and other videos with useful information about medical malpractice and personal injury claims.

Thanks to my colleague Ches Crosbie for alerting me to the decision. Ches is one of the premier medical malpractice lawyers in Newfoundland and Labrador.