Anesthesia Malpractice or Error-Related Injury

Types of Anesthesia Malpractice

Anesthesia helps control the breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, and other vitals of patients undergoing medical procedures so they can be relaxed and avoid feeling pain. There are three broad categories of anesthesia: general anesthesia, regional anesthesia, local anesthesia. Most experts agree that general anesthesia carries the most risk.

While modern anesthesia is largely considered safer than ever before, anesthesia errors can lead to damaging consequences for patients.

For example, sometimes healthcare providers administer an inadequate amount of anesthetic. This situation can lead to patients experiencing a condition known as anesthesia awareness or anesthetic awareness, where someone is aware during a surgical procedure. Such awareness can leave patients powerless to notify medical professionals that additional anesthetics are required. People who are awake during surgical procedures may suffer from extreme emotional distress and long-term psychological consequences such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In other cases, too much anesthesia can result in prolonged sedation. Medical negligence from anesthesiologists can result in other serious injuries such as brain damage, nerve damage and paralysis, seizures, comas, heart attack, or even death.

Other common types of anesthesia errors include, but are not limited to:

• Administering incorrect anesthetics
• Administering anesthesia to patients with documented medical histories of allergic reactions
• Delaying anesthesia delivery
• Drug or alcohol use by healthcare providers
• Failure to properly administer oxygen during surgery
• Failure to properly monitor vital signs
• Failure to follow proper intubation procedures
• Failure to prevent anesthesia interactions (prescription drugs)
• Failure to properly instruct patients prior to anesthesia
• Failure to monitor patient
• Failure to recognize complications
• Using defective equipment