Opinion ID: 867533
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Limited Consent

Text: ¶ 15 The court of appeals found that Duncan's battery claim should fail because she consented to receive the injection. We disagree. Her general authorization of an injection does not defeat her battery claim because her consent was limited to certain drugs. Duncan explicitly conditioned her consent on the use of morphine or demerol and rejected the use of any other drug. Conduct involving the use of a sedative other than morphine or demerol, contrary to explicit instruction and understanding, cannot be viewed as consensual. ¶ 16 The Restatement requires that consent, to be effective, must be to the particular conduct, or substantially the same conduct. Restatement § 892A (2)(b). The terms and reasonable implications of the consent given determine the scope of the particular conduct covered. Restatement § 892A cmt. d. The scope of consent is an issue for the trier of fact to determine. Id.; see also Cathemer v. Hunter, 27 Ariz.App. at 785, 558 P.2d at 980 (holding a jury question existed as to whether a patient consented to an operation and whether the operation received was substantially similar to the operation to which the patient consented so as to be within the scope of the consent). [A]nything greater or different than the procedure consented to becomes a battery. Hales, 118 Ariz. at 310, 576 P.2d at 498. ¶ 17 The parties in this case characterize differently the particular conduct to which Duncan consented. Duncan contends she gave limited consent for an injection of the painkillers morphine or demerol, but that she rejected fentanyl. SMI claims Duncan consented to the insertion of a catheter through which pain medication was to be administered, and therefore the nature of the procedure was the same no matter which drug was used. SMI's position is untenable, given the record before us. ¶ 18 The relevant inquiry here is not whether the patient consented to an injection; the issue is whether the patient consented to receive the specific drug that was administered. Duncan could have given broad consent to the administration of any painkiller, but she gave specific instructions that she would accept only morphine or demerol and nothing else. We hold that when a patient gives limited or conditional consent, a health care provider has committed a battery if the evidence shows the provider acted with willful disregard of the consent given. See Ashcraft v. King, 228 Cal.App.3d 604, 278 Cal.Rptr. 900, 904 (1991) (surgeon committed battery when patient's consent to operation was conditioned on use of family-donated blood only, and surgeon intentionally violated condition). At oral argument, SMI admitted that Duncan presented a viable battery claim because Nurse Fink injected her with a painkiller which she had expressly rejected.