The dangers of anesthesia errors

No one who enters the hospital for a routine, elective procedure expects never to leave or to leave in a vegetative state due to an anesthesia error. However, these most unfortunate incidents happen all too frequently at hospitals, medical centers and surgical clinics.

While not every anesthesia problem can be anticipated and avoided, many can. One preventative measure is to adequately assess and test patients before the anesthesiologist administers the first dose of anesthesia.

Health care providers need to get a comprehensive medical history that focuses on any past adverse events a patient may have had with anesthesia. But some patients have never been anesthetized before, so doctors must be especially careful in their pre-op screening procedures.

Administering anesthesia is both an art and a science in that very precise calculations based on dosage and body size are weighed along with any intuitive sense that the anesthesiologist gets that a patient is not doing well on a medication.

A miscalculation in dosage can leave a patient with a severe brain injury from which they are likely never to significantly recover. Life as they knew it might conceivably change from vibrant and engaging to being bed-bound in an institutional setting.

Whether it was the anesthesiologist’s failure to monitor their patient while under the effects of anesthesia, the wrong dosage or any other egregious error, there needs to be accountability from the medical profession for what went wrong.

Filing a claim for damages is the first step in securing financial compensation and coverage for present and future medical bills. If you or your loved one suffered serious, life-altering complications from an anesthesia error, you deserve to be compensated for this act of medical malpractice.