Doe v. Johnston

NEUMAN, Justice.

This medical malpractice case concerns the scope and adequacy of informed consent secured from a surgery patient who developed transfusion-associated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). A jury returned a verdict in favor of the surgeon and this appeal followed. We affirm.

The operative facts are largely undisputed. In February 1985 defendant Richard Johnston — an orthopedic surgeon — performed a total hip replacement on a fifty-year-old patient identified in these proceedings as John Doe. The procedure was successful and no allegations of negligence are made about the…