        |
  |
Informed Consent
Our awareness of this issue and the need to address it as a public health safety concern is heightened because we have suffered strokes from upper neck manipulations. Many chiropractors have refused to reconsider performing upper cervical manipulations, or even mandating informed consent before treatment. Often, they argue that the risk is too miniscule to address. Since there is no official reporting mechanism in place for strokes occurring after neck manipulations, and there is no mandatory informed consent standard for chiropractors, there is currently no way to accurately quantify the risk.
Read About a Study
For medical doctors, virtually all states recognize, either by statute or common law, the right to receive information about one’s medical condition, the treatment choices, the risks associated with the treatments, the possible outcomes and prognoses. This is a mandatory, fundamental standard of practice for physicians. In fact, the American Medical Association incorporated the concept of Informed Consent in its Patients Bill of Rights movement in 1972.
This medical information must be in plain language and easily understood so the patient is able to make an “informed’ decision about his or her health care. If the patient is competent to make decisions and receives this information, this is called ‘informed consent’. If the injury or harm was a foreseeable complication or risk, but the possibility of its occurrence is not communicated to the patient in advance, there is a lack of Informed Consent. A medical doctor who fails to obtain Informed Consent for non-emergency treatments may be charged with a civil and/or criminal offense.
Unfortunately, chiropractors are not held to the same standard as physicians, resulting in many chiropractic patients not being given proper Informed Consent. They undergo upper cervical manipulation without knowing about possible alternative treatments or the risks associated with this procedure. Essentially, they are unknowingly risking serious injury or death. We believe that all patients should have the right to consider risk versus benefit when undergoing any and all treatments. Within our organization, and many others, we have witnessed a significant number of stroke victims, many of them young and healthy with few or no known risk factors for strokes, reporting having received chiropractic cervical neck manipulation prior to having their strokes, but not being informed of the potentially dire risk of this treatment. Cervical manipulation poses extraordinary risks and patients have the right to know about it.
Read About a Study
We seek to prevent future strokes induced by chiropractic treatments. We seek change by reaching out to stroke victims, chiropractors, physicians, attorneys, caregivers and anyone else willing to assist us in our goal to ensure the safety of all chiropractic patients. We believe that, with the help of the chiropractic community, changes can be implemented to fulfill their goal of helping patients with chiropractic care, without potentially catastrophic risk.
|
| |
|
|
|
