Poszerzenie zakresu zabiegu operacyjnego bez zgody pacjenta. Glosa do wyroku Sądu Apelacyjnego w Warszawie sygn. akt I ACa 413/20 z dnia 28 stycznia 2021

Abstract

The patient’s informed consent is an important aspect in the process of treatment from the point of view of assessing the legality of the doctor’s actions, taken especially during surgery. The judgment of the Court of Appeals of January 28, 2021, which is the subject of this gloss, concerns a factual situation in which, due to extraordinary circumstances that could not have been foreseen during the preoperative diagnosis, there was a need to broaden the scope of surgery during a medical procedure. The court correctly pointed out in the thesis of the voted judgment that it is permissible to widen the surgical field beyond the scope of the patient’s consent, which means that the doctor’s action under the conditions of the necessity to widen the surgical field could not give rise to liability for damages due to the occurrence of circumstances giving rise to the doctor’s duty to save the patient’s life and health.