Can you sue your doctor for performing a surgery without telling you it was experimental?

Doctors and other healthcare providers must fully inform a patient about any risks involved in any proposed medical procedure, treatment, or surgery. If the doctor fails to receive proper informed consent from his/her patient and the patient is injured, the doctor may be liable for medical malpractice.

State laws vary as to what kind of information must be discussed and disclosed between a doctor and his/her patient prior to the procedure, treatment, or surgery. But California does have specific requirements when medical experiments are involved.

A medical experiment is defined under the Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Experimentation Act as any penetration or damage to the tissue of a human subject, or the use of a drug or device in or on a human subject, in the practice or research of medicine in a manner not reasonably related to the maintenance, improvement, or benefit of the subject's health.

Within California's Act is the "experimental subjects" bill of rights requiring that certain items be explained to a patient in order to constitute informed consent prior to the experimental procedure, treatment, or surgery including:

• The nature and purpose of the experiment
• An explanation of the procedure
• A description of any risks or discomforts that can be expected
• Information about any medical treatment that is available to the patient after the experiment if complications should arise
• Explanation about the patient's right to consent or not consent to the procedure, treatment, or surgery free from force, fraud, deceit, duress, coercion, or undue influence

You need to consult a medical malpractice attorney to review your case and determine your legal options. But it appears as if you did not give informed consent since you were not told about the experimental surgery or its potential risks. You were never given the right to consent or not consent since your doctor appears to have deceived you into allowing the surgery to be performed.