Patients undergoing surgery are administered anesthesia so that they are unconscious during their procedures. Without anesthesia, surgery would be impossible in many cases, as the pain of a body part getting cut into and surgically repaired is too great for most people to bear.
Unfortunately, when anesthesia is not administered in a safe and proper way, it may become more harmful to the patient than the ailment for which he or she is receiving surgery. When an individual suffers an anesthesia-related accident, the consequences are often harmful and, many times, deadly.
In most cases, anesthesia errors are the result of human errors. The doctor who administers the sedation, the anesthesiologist, must take great care when dosing and monitoring patients. When the doctor fails to do this, then he or she may be guilty of medical malpractice.
Some of the most common human errors that anesthesiologists commit include:
- Leaving a patient sedated for too long
- Incorrectly measuring the correct dosage for the patient
- Neglecting to pay attention to a patient’s vitals while he or she is unconscious
- Improperly inserting the tube that delivers the anesthesia
Any of these errors may lead to serious medical complications, including heart attack, stroke, choking, or even death. Many patients left under anesthesia for too long sometimes fall into a coma. Others are more unlucky and actually die when put under sedation for an unsafe length of time.
Anesthesiologists may commit negligent actions for a number of reasons. Many are experienced individuals and feel that they already know how a patient will react. Others, on the other hand, may be inexperienced and may not know proper procedures. Unfortunately, some just do not care about their jobs and are careless out of habit.
None of these reasons makes negligence acceptable, and an anesthesia error is still considered medical malpractice even if the anesthesiologist did not purposefully commit the negligent accident.
When an individual suffer an anesthesia-related injury, he or she may experience serious long-term health problems. In the event of such problems, the individual may be entitled to financial compensation, but he or she will have to bring a medical malpractice claim against the offending anesthesiologist to get compensated for his or her injuries.
Anesthesiologists often hold the lives of their patients in their hands.
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