An unconscious patient with a head injury needs immediate life-saving surgery. His wife speaks only French, and the health care providers who are not fluent in French are having a difficult time explaining his condition to her
Which of the following is the most correct answer regarding this situation? a. Two licensed health care workers should witness and sign the preoperative consent form indicating that they heard an explanation of the procedure given in English.
b. An institutional review board must be contacted to give its emergency advice on the situation.
c. A friend of the family may act as an interpreter, but the explanation cannot contain details of the patient's accident because of confidentiality laws.
d. The health care team should continue with the surgery after providing information in the best manner possible.
D
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A Two witnesses are required usually when telephone consents are involved. This is not the case in this situation.
B In an emergency, it is not necessary to contact the institutional review board. Doing so would take up valuable time.
C A family member or acquaintance who is able to speak the patient's language should not be used to interpret health care information. An official interpreter must be available to explain the terms of consent (except in an emergency situation).
D In emergency situations, if it is impossible to obtain consent from the patient or an authorized person, the beneficial or life-saving procedure may be undertaken without liability for failure to obtain consent. In such cases, the law assumes that the patient would wish to be given the treatment. This is referred to as the emergency doctrine.
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