Johnson v. Kokemoor
Supreme Court of Wisconsin
545 N.W.2d 495 (1996)
Dr. Kokemoor (defendant) recommended difficult aneurysm-clipping surgery to Johnson (plaintiff), telling her he had performed the procedure "dozens of times" and describing its risk of death as 2 percent, comparable to routine surgeries, when his actual experience was minimal and the true risk for an inexperienced surgeon was closer to 30 percent; he never mentioned more experienced surgeons were available. The surgery left Johnson a wheelchair-dependent quadriplegic with impaired vision and speech. She sued for failure to obtain informed consent, and the jury found for her; Kokemoor appealed the admission of evidence about his inexperience, his failure to properly compare risk statistics, and his failure to refer her to more experienced surgeons.
Whether trial courts may admit specific evidence of a physician's statements and conduct to determine whether a patient had sufficient, material information to give informed and intelligent consent to treatment.