When you are scheduled for surgery at a hospital, most of the time you’ll expect to be “put under” while the surgery happens. An anesthesiologist will administer an anesthetic which means you’ll sleep through the entire procedure and won’t feel any pain.
It’s a typically very safe and routine procedure that medical professionals carry out daily. Errors do occur, however, when the anesthesiologist fails to follow proper procedures. This negligence can cause a wide range of injuries, some minor and some catastrophic.
Some injuries caused by anesthesiologist malpractice include:
- Asphyxia
- Brain damage
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Paralysis
- Coma
- Death
- Nerve damage
Why do these injuries occur?
One of the most common reasons that patients suffer injury as a result of anesthesiologist malpractice is failure to give the correct dosage. In some cases, this can even result in the patient waking up during surgery and being unable to communicate this to the surgeons.
Additionally, injuries can occur where there has been a failure to read the patient’s notes properly, or in some cases, at all. This can lead to anesthesiologists administering an anesthetic the patient is allergic to which should have otherwise been clear from the medical history.
A failure to intubate properly can cause choking and is one of the reasons for asphyxia as mentioned above. Another reason for injuries occurring is simply due to not keeping an eye on the vital signs of the patient. A prolonged period spent without oxygen getting to the brain can cause many of the injuries and illnesses listed.
An anesthetic-related injury can have devastating effects, both mentally and physically. Where the injury occurred as a result of medical malpractice you may have a legal claim against the hospital.