Has there ever been a case in America where a woman has successfully sued a doctor/hospital for a voluntary sterilisation ?
IOW, she changed her mind about wanting to be sterile after the operation and sued them for performing the operation.
Thanks in advance.
I would HOPE that a woman who did that would be laughed out of the courtroom.
To the best of my knowledge no atty in his right mind would take that case UNLESS an informed consent was not discussed and signed by a pt. who desired sterilization.
If she could prove that it was not explained to her that in all liklihood, the surgery would render her permanently unable to have children normally, she has no case. In short, having been an ob/gyn for 42 years, I have never heard of a successful plaintiff in a case as you described…It makes no sense.
When I had my T.L., long long ago when the procedure was relatively new, I had to sign about 10 statements that I absolutely positively understood that the operation was absolutely positively irreversible. They were having me sign these things right up to the point of getting the anesthetic. I assume they still do this. Therefore – no lawsuit, I assume.
There is one case I found, Grant v. Petroff, 684 N.E.2d 1020 (Ill. App. 5 Dist. 1997), where the woman claimed that the tubal ligation was performed without her consent. She lost her initial trial, but on appeal the case was reversed and remanded for new trial. The Doctor tried to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, but they didn’t hear the case. I didn’t find any record of the second trial. Presumably, they settled.
There was no signed consent for the procedure.