Medical Malpractice Anesthesia Errors

The importance of a competent and proactive anesthesiologist simply cannot be overstated. The anesthesiologist is responsible for keeping the patient’s vital signs stable during the operation and protecting the patient from harm. This can be a challenging and demanding task especially in cases of transplant and other complex surgeries which may take up to 10 – 14 hours. Even during shorter “routine” elective surgeries the risks to the patient of sustaining serious brain injury from poor anesthesiology care is alarming. The specialist must be wary of both sudden changes and gradual changes to the vital signs of his patient. The brain has a very high demand for oxygen and brain tissue may be irreversibly damaged if it is without an adequate supply of oxygen for longer than a few minutes.

Anesthesiology Care

Blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation levels are inextricably linked. The entire intra-operative clinical picture needs to be considered together with any anatomical variances peculiar to the particular patient concerned.

Typically when a patient goes into surgery the focus is on the surgery itself. This may be heart surgery, an emergency caesarian section, or knee replacement. In cases of anesthesia error it is typical for the surgical procedure to be concluded successfully but the patient fails to wake up as expected from a general anesthetic in the post-operative recovery room.

The hallmark of an error in general anesthesiology care is a brain injury which is imaged on both sides of the brain which reveals itself on imaging (CT and MRI) over the course of the following few days.

If you have concerns do not delay in contacting us

Cases of alleged anesthesiology care have very specific issues which need to be addressed at an early stage, before significant sums of money, time and emotional energy are invested. Angela Price-Stephens has experience in dealing with these claims. The last settlement for a claim of this nature was settled at $6.5m which reflects the devastating nature of these brain injuries.

Call Angela Price-Stephens for a free consultation if you are concerned regarding care received by your loved one.