Jon Lynn and Cynthia Lynn Obtained a Directed Verdict in an Informed Consent Case in Broward County

Jon Lynn and Cynthia Lynn obtained a directed verdict in an informed consent case in Broward County where he represented the collective Defendants (Urologist, his staff, and medical group). The Plaintiff was diagnosed with prostate cancer and elected to undergo radiation therapy. Upon completion of the radiation treatments, the patient was referred to his treating urologist (Defendant in the case) for additional therapy which included the use of a hormonal medication to be administered by injection which was received following the consultation. Immediately thereafter, the Plaintiff was admitted to a local hospital and was diagnosed with a bleeding pituitary tumor. He underwent surgery for the hemorrhaging brain tumor and claimed to be completely disabled by the complication that occurred. The patient claimed that his prostate cancer had been “cured” by his radiation treatments and that he never would have consented to the therapeutic injection if he had been properly informed of the potential risks of the shot. The Plaintiff’s expert testified that a formal, written consent to the injection was not required but he did not see any evidence in the record that the defendants had communicated any potential risks of the hormonal injection before administering it. He conceded that it would not be incumbent on the defendants to advise the patient that the injection could cause bleeding of a pituitary tumor (which the Plaintiff claimed he did not know about at the time he received the injection), but testified that the defendants simply did not get the patient’s informed consent and were therefore responsible for the damage caused by the injection which he thought caused the tumor to bleed. At the close of the Plaintiff’s case-in-chief, the court granted the Defendants’ Motion for Directed Verdict, finding that the claimed failure to get the patient’s informed consent to the injection, even assuming that to be true, was not a “legal cause” of the Plaintiff’s damages.