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The article's headline adds, "Can doctors do that?"
My question is, can doctors legally do anything else in cases like these?
In some cases (like this one), a C-section is medically safer than a vaginal birth, both for the mother and for the baby. The likelihood of one or both of them suffering serious injury, or even dying during the delivery, is higher during a vaginal birth than during a C-section.
That means that, out of the next 100 babies a doctor delivers under these conditions, injury or death will result in (2) cases if they are all done by C-section, but inujry or death will result in (15) cases if they are all done by vaginal delivery. Yes, I made up those numbers, but the lopsidedness of the statistics is accurate.
And the problem the doctor faces is (aside from not liking to have his patients die on him) is that after the 15 find themselves injured or dead, they can AND WILL sue the doctor for everything he owns. And the fact that the patient insisted on the vaginal delivery, will be ignored, and the doctor found guilty by a jury, once a John-Edward-type lawyer gets through with them.
If a doctor has a patient who is at much greater risk during a vaginal delivery than during a C-section, and the patient is nonetheless insisting on the vaginal delivery, what exactly is he supposed to do?
1.) If he does the C-section anyway, he gets sued (as this patient is suing).
2.) If he does NOT do the C-section, and the patient winds up injured or dead, he gets sued.
3.) If he decides to decline to help the patient and turn her over to another doctor, he gets sued for patient neglect.
What, exactly, is he supposed to do?
(My father was an obstetrician, and used to talk about this a lot, never mentioning patient's names or locations of course)
Woman Sues a New York Hospital for Forcing a C-Section. Can Doctors Do That?
by Jessica Grose
A New York woman, Rinat Dray, has filed suit against Staten Island University Hospital because she says doctors there forced her to have an unwanted cesarean section. According to the New York Times, Dray has had two C-sections prior to this pregnancy, and she wanted to give birth vaginally. After hours of labor, Dray says she was pressured into a C-section by doctors, who told Dray her uterus would rupture and that, if she didn’t submit to the procedure, “she would be committing the equivalent of child abuse and that her baby would be taken away from her.”
[MOD CUT/copyright violation]
After hours of labor, Dray says she was pressured into a C-section by doctors,
who told Dray her uterus would rupture and that, if she didn’t submit to the
procedure, “she would be committing the equivalent of child abuse and that her
baby would be taken away from her.”
From only reading the quote provided above, I'm left with the impression/opinion that the hospital and the physican should be prosecuted. The woman was assaulted and threatened with the forced relocation of her child. Police state tactics by the hospital.
I've had a couple of students who were permanently disabled by mothers making this choice. The one mother told me every time she looks at her child she hates herself and has been in and out of mental wards because of the depression. She says the only reason she has never committed suicide is because she has to take care of him. She said she has been terrified to make any decisions since. Talk about having to pay for a bad choice. The other one never said much about it other than to say what happened and that she'll never forgive herself.
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I've had a couple of students who were permanently disabled by mothers making this choice. The one mother told me every time she looks at her child she hates herself and has been in and out of mental wards because of the depression. She says the only reason she has never committed suicide is because she has to take care of him. She said she has been terrified to make any decisions since. Talk about having to pay for a bad choice.
But it seldom is what happens.
Far more often, the doctor gets sued... and loses everything he owns.
Because the paitient refused to do what he STRONGLY advised, and repeated over and over, but did not actually bash the woman over the head with a club to make her obey. The jury then decided that the patient's injury was the doctor's fault.
The article's headline adds, "Can doctors do that?"
My question is, can doctors legally do anything else in cases like these?
In some cases (like this one), a C-section is medically safer than a vaginal birth, both for the mother and for the baby. The likelihood of one or both of them suffering serious injury, or even dying during the delivery, is higher during a vaginal birth than during a C-section.
That means that, out of the next 100 babies a doctor delivers under these conditions, injury or death will result in (2) cases if they are all done by C-section, but inujry or death will result in (15) cases if they are all done by vaginal delivery. Yes, I made up those numbers, but the lopsidedness of the statistics is accurate.
People are stupid, so there is times when doctors should make a decision.
Yet c-sections make hospitals a lot more money, and that can cause a bias.
I would allow doctors to override the patients wishes, but not protect said doctors from legal action (such as this case). If you force a person . . you better be willing to backup that decision in court. That would be a sort of counter incentive.
Unless the adult has been adjudicated incompetent, they cannot have any procedures done without consent.
The woman actually has a pretty good claim.
So the hosptial (and doctor) MUST perform a procedure that goes flatly against medical advice and has a pretty good chance of getting them sued for everything they own?
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