If a heart surgeon cant save a patient's life or messes up on the surgery, how is he responsible for the death

Answer 1

Actually the surgeon is responsible for a lot more than most people think. If anything goes wrong, much less dying, he is responsible. It doesnt even have to be related to the surgery. The patient could be having heart surgery and come out with a numb foot and the doctors are responsible. Even though they didnt touch the foot, it happened in the OR, so they are ultimately responsible. The surgeon doesnt have to totally mess up though. By law, if he does something that a "reasonable" physician would not have done, he is completely responsible. If he gives up too early because he feels it is a lost cause and it can be proven that it was possible to finish, he is in trouble. However, if it is obviously a lost cause, he is not responsible, but during the surgery he has to explain why he is quitting, so there are witnesses to testify if the family decides otherwise. And in the same instance, if the patient is in for surgery, starts to die and the surgeon performs heroic measures to save the patient's life but during the saving permanently disables the patient one way or another, he is let off the hook. Or if the patient is in for surgery on his right ear, the surgeon gets in and notices the right ear is fine but the left ear is bad, he will get his *** sued off if he performs surgery on the left ear while the patient is still sedated.
Doctors will be sued if and only if: there is 1) a duty to provide care and 2) a breach of duty to provide care and 3) harm to the patient and 4) a link between the harm/breach of duty

If your taxi driver has a wreck, is he gonna get sued if you get hurt even though you knew the risks and gave him permission to drive you? On a much smaller and less dangerous scale, its very similar and an easier to understand situation, even though the driver wont quite have the lawyers a heart surgeon would.

Answer 2

what do you mean mess up? no doctor would mess up a surgery. before any operation, the risks of surgery are explained to the patient and his family. then they decide if the operation pushes through or not. so not unless he does something out of context, he is not responsible.

Answer 3

A lot of medicine world is not a science.
Especially in surgery where invading the body has a high risk.
and then on the heart is even higher risk.
There is only so much we know and can control and a lot of variables make up the human race.
IF he gave it his best, he deserves the thanks for trying.

Answer 4

he's not responsible if he doesn't messes it up
simple as that