If you have ever had an operation, you have probably enjoyed the benefits of being given an anesthetic. Although anesthesia is used to ensure that patients do not experience pain during certain medical procedures, its application comes with more than a little risk. Anesthesiologists are responsible for safely administering anesthesia to patients which includes pre-surgical evaluation and care, appropriate observation during the surgery, and post-surgical care as well. Once you are under sedation, your life rests in the anesthesiologist’s hands since they have control over your body’s vital functions, such as blood pressure, breathing, heart rate, and body temperature.
Should an error be made with the anesthesia, the results can be disastrous including brain injury, injury to internal organs, and even death. anesthesiology errors can be the most significant medical errors because often they can lead to hypoxic brain injury a patient in a vegetative state for the rest of their lives. Other types of anesthesiology errors like a tracheal tear, can often result from a mistake in the placement of the intubation tube.
If you or a loved one endured a serious injury caused by an anesthesia error, you could have a valid medical malpractice claim. In order for your case to succeed, however, your Virginia Beach medical malpractice attorney will need to show that the anesthesiologist committed negligence and that it was the immediate cause of your injury.
Recent data about lawsuits related to anesthesia errors underscore the importance of working with an experienced attorney. According to a study conducted by Medscape, only 40% of 4,000 anesthesiology-centered lawsuits were eventually settled in the victim’s favor. 9% of those cases went to trial and, of those, victims prevailed in only 2%.
The Virginia Beach legal team at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp handles only personal injury cases, including medical malpractice cases. Due to this, we have the experience to effectively take on complicated cases involving anesthesiology errors. Since 1985, our firm has remained at the forefront of personal injury law in Virginia by achieving multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements. Call us today to schedule your free consultation with one of our Virginia Beach medical malpractice lawyers.
Common Anesthesia Errors
Anesthesia is the use of different medications, known as anesthetics, that are administered to patients to stop them feeling pain during surgeries or other medical procedures. Unfortunately, as necessary as they are, anesthesias are not entirely without complications. Anesthesia has varied degrees of risk based on the procedure and the type of anesthesia being used. Most anesthesia errors occur due to negligence on the part of healthcare professionals. The consequences of some anesthesia errors are nothing more than minor side effects that will heal on their own after a few weeks. Unfortunately, many of them have serious, life-changing outcomes such as:
Anesthesia Awareness
A patient who “wakes up” while they are under anesthesia is said to experience anesthesia awareness. Although they are not fully awake in the usual sense, they do experience fleeting instances of consciousness. The effects of anesthesia awareness can vary widely. For example, during an operation, a patient with anesthesia awareness may:
- Hear conversations and ambient sounds
- Have the sense that they are dreaming
- Regain consciousness and discover they are unable to move
- Feel movement, pressure, or pain
Anesthesia awareness only occurs in patients under general anesthesia, as opposed to other forms of sedation. This is due to the fact that general anesthesia overtakes the body’s automatic functions, like heart rate and breathing. Other forms of sedation, such as IV sedation, put the patient in an altered state of consciousness while still allowing them to speak and breathe on their own.
How Does Anesthesia Awareness Happen?
Anesthesia awareness is most often the result of:
- Inadequate administration: In some cases, the provider failed to administer an appropriate dose of drugs. This occurs most often in emergency procedures such as cesarean sections, cardiac surgeries, or operations intended to repair traumatic injuries.
- Unusual drug thresholds: This occurs when an anesthesiologist administers a typical dose of anesthetics to a patient who has different anesthetic requirements. This commonly impacts patients with extreme anxiety disorders, patients with drug abuse problems, and those who have previously experienced anesthesia awareness.
- Mechanical malfunctions: Should a piece of operating room equipment malfunction, or the staff fail to properly conduct thorough equipment checks, anesthesia awareness can occur.
Brain Injury
The body’s ability to maintain brain function and the cardiovascular system can be hugely impacted by anesthesia. These functions include maintaining an unrestricted airway, breathing, and heart function to supply oxygen and blood to the brain. Any decrease in the oxygen or blood supply to a patient’s brain can lead to severe damage, including brain injuries and death.
Brain injury can occur when a patient enters Stage 4 of anesthesia. If they experience anoxia or hypoxic ischemia while sedated, even a small delay in restoring respiratory and cardiovascular support could result in brain injury.
Brain damage due to a lack of oxygen can commence after just one minute and irreparable damage can occur after several minutes. Within mere minutes of oxygen deprivation, brain cells start to die. After as few as 10 minutes, extensive brain damage can take place, leaving the patient with very slim odds of recovery.
What are the Long-Term Impacts of Brain Injuries Caused by Anesthesia?
The odds of recovery following an anesthesia-related brain injury hinge on multiple factors, mainly the severity of the injury. For those who manage to recover some brain function, physical impacts can include paralysis, weakness, rigidity or spasticity disorders. Cognitive signs of serious brain injuries include:
- Trouble with recall
- Issues with impulse control and judgment
- Difficulty remembering words and using incorrect words
- Unprovoked mood swings
- Motor skill impairments
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Symptoms that resemble dementia
Hypoxia and Anoxia
Hypoxia and anoxia are both medical terms that allude to a lack of oxygen flow to the brain. These phrases are often used interchangeably, although technically they are not the same. Anoxia refers to brain damage resulting from a complete lack of oxygen and hypoxia refers to a diminished or restricted amount of oxygen.
Symptoms of Hypoxic and Anoxic Brain Injuries
Brain injuries tend to be extremely unique. There is no single symptom is common to every victim. Signs of anoxic brain damage along with hypoxic brain damage vary with the extent of oxygen deprivation and the duration for which the patient’s brain was deprived of oxygen.
Affected individuals will often have trouble focusing, exhibit a decreased ability to make good judgment calls, have poor motor skills, and experience some degree of memory loss. If the brain is deprived of oxygen for even a few minutes, a patient’s brain cells will start to undergo apoptosis (cell death) leading to seizures, coma, life-long brain damage, and even death.
Nerve Damage
Another issue that can take place during surgical procedures is nerve damage. Generally speaking, there are two mechanisms by which nerve damage can occur:
- Error by staff or surgeon: A surgeon’s work involves working very close to a patient’s nerves. Any contact between a nerve and a surgical instrument can cause nerve damage. Even among the most skilled of surgeons, the unintentional slicing or severing of a nerve is always a possibility.
- Error during anesthesia administration: Anesthesiologists primarily work with three kinds of anesthesia. Local anesthesia is delivered with a needle, making it vital to avoid any contact between the nerve and the needle. Regional anesthesia is injected into the spine, which encases multiple nerve clusters that can easily be damaged during an injection. General anesthesia influences the whole body and can result in nerve damage since the body is unable to feel pain.
Symptoms of Nerve Damage
Numbness, tingling, burning, and muscle weakness are the most common indications of post-surgical nerve damage. Numbness is lost in a specific part of the body. It is persistent and usually feels like static, or pins and needles, and often impacts the patient’s day-to-day life. Other signs of nerve damage include sudden weakness and loss of muscle strength, ongoing headaches, and difficulty moving the affected part of the body.
Aspiration Pneumonia
As previously mentioned, risks are always involved anytime your bodily functions slow down while you are unconscious. One of the more prevalent dangers is the onset of a respiratory condition called anesthesia aspiration, which occurs when materials or bodily fluids enter a patient’s lungs.
A report published by the National Institutes of Health shows that this potentially life-threatening condition develops in about one of every 2,500 medical procedures where anesthesia is required.
If you developed aspiration pneumonia or other respiratory complications after an operation, physician error may have been the cause or a contributing factor.
How Does Anesthesia Aspiration Happen?
Anesthesia aspiration happens due to the body’s reaction to general anesthesia, especially when undergoing thoracic surgery. Anesthesia aspiration occurs when a patient inhales their gastric contents, either in solid or fluid form. Since they are not conscious, their body is unable to expel the obstruction on its own which can lead to hypoxia.
Although a patient experiencing anesthesia aspiration is in danger of serious injury while the event is occurring, there are numerous potential future complications as well. Research has shown that roughly 50% of those who aspirate during a medical procedure will subsequently develop pneumonitis, pneumonia, or another form of lung damage.
Physician Negligence and Anesthesia Aspiration
Since it is a potentially fatal medical condition, anesthesiologists are fully aware of the significance of preventing aspiration. Before beginning any medical procedure, physicians are required to enforce advanced anesthetic techniques and pinpoint any risk factors that may cause the patient to inhale the contents of their stomach. For example, a patient should not be prepped for surgery if they:
- Feel nauseated
- Have a distended or bloated abdomen
- Have consumed food or drink recently
In addition to going ahead with a procedure despite these factors, there are other ways an anesthesiologist’s negligence can result in anesthesia aspiration. The patient should be monitored constantly and a feeding tube, which will prevent inhalation of the stomach contents, should be inserted. When anesthesia aspiration is caused by negligence, meaning that the physician’s behavior countered current medically accepted standards, victims may be entitled to file a medical malpractice claim. By doing so with the help of a skilled Virginia Beach medical malpractice lawyer, they can recover damages including medical expenses, lost earnings, pain and suffering, and more.
Other Common Errors in the Administration of Anesthesia
- Dispensing an incorrect dosage or not providing the anesthesia in a timely fashion
- Failure to make sure the patient does not have any associated allergies
- Failure to identify or prevent an adverse reaction to the anesthesia
- Failure to correctly intubate the patient or sustain intubation properly
- Failure to properly monitor the patient during a procedure
- Failure to identify and deal with any complications that may arise
- Failure to account for the positioning of the patient and the effect it could have on their blood pressure
Contact an Attorney Before the Statute of Limitations Expires
The Virginia statute of limitations for a medical malpractice case is two years from the day the injury occurred. So, if you or someone you love sustained an injury caused by an anesthesia error, contact the Virginia Beach medical malpractice lawyers at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp as soon as possible. Our personal injury law firm has the experience and the resources needed to conduct a thorough investigation into your injury claim and put you in the best position possible to obtain full and fair financial compensation.
In one recent case, we secured maximum compensation for the family of a man who passed away due to a botched endotracheal intubation that stopped his flow of oxygen for somewhere between seven and 15 minutes. This error resulted in a two-week vegetative state and ultimately led to his death.
If you were injured due to an anesthesia error or any other form of medical negligence, please call (833) 997-1774 or fill out our easy, online contact form to schedule your free consultation. We have offices in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Hampton.