“It sends chills up your spine,” says John Fialkov, MD, describing an experience he believes most physicians who perform surgery have had. “A patient comes in for surgery, and is all prepped and ready to go, and he or a family member asks, ‘So what exactly are we doing today?’”
“I’m about to change someone’s life forever,” he marvels, “and they don’t know what I’m doing!”
It’s not that consent wasn’t obtained. Or that the procedure wasn’t discussed. It’s more about how patients
sometimes process information in stressful situations.
