holding that, under Maryland law, "the proper test for measuring the physician's duty to disclose risk information is whether such data will be material to the patient's decision"
How later courts described this case
- holding that, under Maryland law, "the proper test for measuring the physician's duty to disclose risk information is whether such data will be material to the patient's decision"
- noting that, under Maryland law, the case presented a claim grounded upon lack of informed consent, rather than lack of consent, which properly is cast as a tort action for negligence as opposed to battery
- allowing a patient and her husband to bring patient’s claim for lack of informed consent, in a case based on Maryland law
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
ALBERT V. BRYAN, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Dr. Miltenberger is now held liable in damages for repairing a hiatal hernia of Myetta Lipscomb, which he discovered in operating upon her for removal of the gall bladder. The discovery convinced him on sight that without repair at once, the hernia was an immediately impending threat to her life. With the open abdominal incission revealing the gall bladder as well as the hernia, with his patient unconscious and with no assistance at hand, he faced an emergency demanding action forthwith to *339 save the plaintiff’s life and he so acted. dissent from the conclusion of this Court's majority that his informed and responsive determination subjected him to tort or contract liability at law to the one whose life he saved. I