Informed consent be damned. A surgeon is still sued for malpractice after a patient died from a complicated esophagectomy:

Foster said the surgery Sadighi performed requires the esophagus to be removed from below the voice box to the level of the stomach.

The stomach is then tied to the remainder of the esophagus.

He said this type of surgery has been determined to be the only way to give a patient with that type of cancer a chance to survive, and that half the patients who undergo this procedure die in five years.

Sadighi “explained in detail” to both Sebastino and his niece the risks involved with the surgery, and Sebastino had signed a document stating he understood the risks and that the procedure provided “no guarantees,” Foster said.

One of those risks includes the possibility of injuring the same nerve that affected Sebastino, Foster said, because it is located near the esophagus.