Anesthesia Malpractice

Patients undergoing surgery are often put under anesthesia. Anesthesia helps doctors during surgery by keeping patients immobile. Anesthesia involves powerful drugs that can cause serious harm if the anesthesiologist makes an error.

If you or a loved one suffered an injury while undergoing a medical procedure, it’s important to get answers. You need to know whether the injury (or wrongful death of a family member) while under anesthesia may have been caused by medical malpractice. To learn about anesthesia malpractice, speak with a medical malpractice lawyer in a city near you.

What Is Anesthesia?

The administration of anesthesia is a critical process during many medical procedures that prevents patients from feeling pain. Anesthetic drugs can be administered through injection, gas inhalation, or topical application. Types of anesthesia include:

• Local anesthesia provides targeted pain relief and numbness for minor procedures, like skin biopsies and dental procedures. The doctor makes an injection or applies a topical anesthetic. Local anesthetics generally don’t cause patients to lose consciousness.
• Regional anesthesia provides relief from feeling pain in specific areas of the body. For example, an epidural or spinal block can be administered during childbirth to keep patients from feeling pain from the waist down.
• IV/Monitored sedation provides mild sedation, but patients generally aren’t unconscious. It’s used in minor surgeries to relieve pain during colonoscopies, endoscopies, and dental procedures. Monitored sedation can be ideal for short surgical procedures.
• General anesthesia causes patients to lose consciousness, become immobile, and avoid feeling pain. General anesthesia interrupts nerve signals to the brain during surgery. Someone under general anesthesia may not remember anything that happened just before, during, and immediately after surgery. General anesthesia can be administered through an IV or by inhaling gas.

How Can Anesthesia Errors Cause Injury or Death?

The risks of local anesthesia are relatively low. General anesthesia involves powerful drugs that can slow or even stop breathing and heart activity. Patients’ vital signs must be closely monitored while under anesthesia, including:

• Breathing
• Heart rate
• Blood pressure
• Oxygen levels
• Temperature

If the anesthesiologist doesn’t give enough anesthetics, a patient could react to painful actions, such as the surgeon making an incision. They could even wake up during surgery. This is known as anesthesia awareness.

Too much anesthesia could stop breathing or trigger a heart attack. This is one of the most common anesthesia errors. After only minutes without oxygen and blood flow, the cells in the body can begin to die. Hypoxia, or not enough oxygen, can cause brain damage and organ damage.

Without proper treatment, too much anesthesia can lead to a life-threatening or permanent injury to a particular part of the body or death. If a patient does recover, they may be left with permanent mental and physical disabilities.

A negligent anesthesiologist, nurse anesthetist, or other health care provider providing the wrong dose of anesthetics or failing to properly monitor a patient properly could result in a medical malpractice case.

Other Risks of Anesthesia

Anesthesia has several associated risk factors and complications. Some risks of anesthesia care are minor and temporary, such as:

• Sore throat
• Drowsiness
• Minor injuries to the mouth and throat

Patient injuries of the mouth and throat can be caused by intubation in the operating room, where the airway is maintained during surgery.

Drug interactions or a patient’s medical history can cause other anesthesiology risks, including:

• Anaphylaxis (allergic reaction)
• Stroke
• Nerve damage
• Pneumonia
• Hyperthermia or hypothermia
• Respiratory distress
• Hypoxic brain injury
• Cardiac arrest
• Death

Patient safety should be paramount in any surgery. You must be informed of the treatment’s risks, possible side effects, and benefits. Doctors are generally required to obtain your informed consent before performing a medical procedure, like putting you under anesthesia during surgery.

As part of informed consent, you should receive information about the benefits, side effects, treatment alternatives, and risks of not going through treatment. If health care providers fail to inform you of the procedure’s risks, you may have a claim for malpractice because of the lack of informed consent.

How Long Do I Have to File an Anesthesia Malpractice Lawsuit?

You have a limited time to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. This is the statute of limitations. This time limit varies according to the laws of your state. The time limit may also depend on when the injury is discovered or if it involves a minor.

For example, the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania is two years for medical malpractice claims. The time limit can be extended if injuries are not immediately discovered.

The statute of limitations in Illinois is also two years from the date of the injury or when the injury is discovered. However, there is also an upper time limit of four years in all cases. This is also the law in Florida. This is why it’s important not to wait too long to talk to a medical malpractice lawyer.

How Much Is an Anesthesia Malpractice Settlement?

In a medical malpractice lawsuit, you seek damages from a negligent doctor to compensate you for your losses. If the case goes to trial, the jury determines how much to award you. Damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit can include money for your:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Future medical care
• Pain and suffering

You can also settle a medical malpractice lawsuit with the doctor and hospital before it goes to the jury. The settlement offer depends on the extent of the injuries and the strength of your legal case. Your medical malpractice attorney will be able to provide an informed judgment about how much you might be able to get in an anesthesia malpractice settlement or trial.

How Can an Anesthesia Medical Malpractice Lawyer Help?

A medical malpractice lawyer can evaluate your case. They can explain whether the health care provider breached the standard of care, gather supporting evidence, and make sure you are within the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit.

Most medical malpractice law firms will offer a free case evaluation. Malpractice lawyers may also work on a contingency fee basis, which means you won’t owe any money until you win your case or get a settlement. Contact a local medical malpractice lawyer to ensure your anesthesia malpractice case is timely.