In the medical context, battery occurs when a patient is treated without his or her informed consent. It is based on the right of people of sound mind to determine what should or should not be done to their own bodies. Accordingly, a person who has been treated by a medical professional without his or her informed consent may have suffered a medical battery, whether the treatment involved a life-saving procedure or a seemingly trivial but harmful or offensive contact. This is a general rule. How it applies in a specific set of facts can only be learned by consulting directly with an attorney licensed in your state.
Battery is an intentional tort.
Medical battery compensates individuals who are subjected to treatment without consent by awarding them damages for injuries and other expenses. Medical battery has its historical roots in the American legal system's long-established right to bodily integrity. This protection applies both to unauthorized touching that causes actual harm and to contacts that are merely insulting or offensive in nature. In Schloendorff , a woman consented to an examination under ether but withheld consent to an operation while anesthetized. The doctor disregarded the woman's wishes, removing a tumor.