Opinion ID: 852345
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Heading: Spar's Two Theories

Text: In a medical malpractice action based on ordinary negligence, the plaintiff must establish (1) a duty on the part of the defendant physician in relation to the plaintiff, (2) failure of the physician to meet the requisite standard of care, and (3) an injury to the plaintiff resulting from that failure. Bader v. Johnson, 732 N.E.2d 1212, 1216-17 (Ind.2000); Oelling v. Rao, 593 N.E.2d 189, 190 (Ind.1992). The duty of a treating physician is ordinarily to deliver medical services that meet the standard of ordinary care. Vergara v. Doan, 593 N.E.2d 185, 187 (Ind.1992). As a result, breach and causation are usually, as here, the only issues. Spar's negligence claim was that Dr. Cha deviated from the standard of care by foregoing noninvasive fertility tests and instead performing a contraindicated surgical procedure. Lack of informed consent is a distinct theory of liability. Hamilton v. Ashton, 846 N.E.2d 309, 317 (Ind.Ct.App. 2006), clarified on reh'g, 850 N.E.2d 466 (Ind.Ct.App.2006). Lack of informed consent to a harmful touching in medical malpractice cases was traditionally viewed as a battery claim. More recently, unless there is a complete lack of consent, the theory is regarded as a specific form of negligence for breach of the required standard of professional conduct. W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on The Law of Torts § 32, at 190 (5th ed.1984); Revord v. Russell, 401 N.E.2d 763, 766 (Ind.Ct.App.1980); Van Sice v. Sentany, 595 N.E.2d 264, 267 n. 6 (Ind.Ct.App.1992). Lack of informed consent is premised on the physician's duty to disclose to the patient material facts relevant to the patient's decision about treatment. See Bader, 732 N.E.2d at 1217. To succeed on a lack of informed consent action, the plaintiff must prove (1) nondisclosure of required information; (2) actual damage ... (3) resulting from the risks of which the patient was not informed; (4) cause in fact, which is to say that the plaintiff would have rejected the medical treatment if she had known the risk; and (5) that reasonable persons, if properly informed, would have rejected the proposed treatment. 1 Dan B. Dobbs, The Law of Torts, § 250 (2001) (footnotes omitted). Spar's lack-of-informed-consent theory was that her consent was not informed because Dr. Cha did not explain the less risky alternatives and also failed to explain the risks, benefits and alternatives to the elective diagnostic laparoscopy.