When you undergo anesthesia, you are surrendering yourself to the care of the anesthesiologist and the surgeon and placing an enormous amount of trust in their hands. Anesthesia is a vital part of many medical procedures and must be handled with the utmost care and skill. Anesthesiologists are among the most highly trained members of a surgical team, but when they make mistakes the consequences can be disastrous.
Possible Anesthesia Errors
Anesthesia errors can occur at any time during the process, pre-operative, during surgery, or immediately after surgery. The root cause of anesthesiology malpractice is a failure to recognize signs that reflect danger to a patient. Anesthesiologist errors can include a number of different situations:
- Dosage Errors—if an anesthesiologist fails to give a patient enough anesthesia, that person can wake up in the middle of a procedure and be unable to communicate that to the surgeon. On the other hand, if an anesthesiologist administers too much of a substance, the consequences can be deadly.
- Medication Errors—failure to check for drug interactions or potential preventable allergic reactions can have serious consequences
- Communication Errors—failure to communicate with the surgeon and other members of the surgery team can result in harm to a patient
- Improper Intubation—a failure to properly intubate a patient can lead to aspiration of stomach acids, perforation of the esophagus, or a lack of proper blood flow.
- Improper Monitoring—a failure to closely monitor a patient under anesthesia can lead to serious heart attack, stroke, or brain injury
- Defective Equipment—sometimes the equipment used to administer anesthesia is defective, and an anesthesiologist should recognize this fact and proceed accordingly
Proving Anesthesiologist Malpractice
To prove medical malpractice by an anesthesiologist, it must be shown that the healthcare provider did not meet the standard of care. This means that the injured party will need to have evidence of what other similarly trained anesthesiologists would have done under the circumstances.
Contact an Experienced Medical Malpractice Attorney
If you’ve been injured due to a doctor’s negligence, you should have an experienced attorney evaluate your case. At Bonina & Bonina, P.C., we have over 50 years of experience helping New Yorkers injured by medical malpractice. Contact us online or call us at 1-888-MEDLAW1 to schedule your free consultation. Home and hospital visits are available. Se habla español.