What Are Some Common Types of Anesthesiology-Related Errors?

During surgery, doctors typically use anesthesia to prevent the patient experiencing pain during the procedure. Anesthesia makes many procedures possible, but it is not perfect. Anesthesiologists must carefully monitor each patient to avoid complications. Everyone is different, and individual reactions to anesthesia vary, too. It is the doctor’s responsibility to foresee these variations and make the appropriate adjustments in each patient’s care.

Actually, anesthesia mistakes are a leading cause of medical malpractice claims. Medical malpractice cases are different from other personal injury cases because the anesthesiologists have a very high duty of care. Doctors, lawyers and psychiatrists all share this similar high level of duty toward their patients and clients.

Common Anesthesia Mistakes and Complications

Anesthesia errors lead to complications. Some patients feel pain as they actually remain fully or partially conscious during their surgery. Others suffer brain damage from a lack of oxygen because they were under anesthesia for too long or too deeply. These errors lead to significant patient discomfort and can lead to permanent damage.

• Patient History
• Dosage Errors
• Delay in Administration
• Intubation Refusal
• Failure to Monitor

Patient History

As with other medical procedures, gaining the informed consent of the patient is a critical step. A complete patient medical history is crucial. Patients have allergies to anesthetics. Many have pre-existing medical conditions. Medications commonly prescribed affect anesthesia, too. Patient histories give practitioners the information they need to make critical decisions. Unfortunately, sometimes anesthesiologists do not use the information to reinforce safety issues.

Dosage Errors

Anesthesiologists adjust the dose of the anesthetic based on patient medical history and other situational variables. Obvious variables are the nature of the surgery and the time required, so the patient does not wake up before the surgery ends. Emergency surgical procedures make errors more common. Emergency C-sections or appendectomies limit the anesthesiologist’s time and create distractions. Dosage errors allow dangerously prolonged sedation times of patients, which can lead to lifelong disabilities.

Delay in Administration – Not Giving the Anesthesia the Time to Take Full Effect

In emergency surgery, seconds can count for life or death. Sometimes, a doctor begins a surgery before the patient feels completely anesthetized. Failing to give the anesthesia the chance to take effect means the patient feels excruciating and entirely unnecessary pain. A Delay in Administration case has many anesthesiologists over correcting. They administer stronger doses to get the anesthesia to work faster. Sometimes, the patient does not wake up because of the stronger or higher dose of the anesthesia.

Intubation Refusal

Intubation inserts a tube in the patient’s windpipe. The patient breathes comfortably through the tube. The anesthesiologist can quickly add medicine, or anesthetic antidote, as required. Occasionally anesthesiologists consider this procedure unnecessarily cautious and refuse to intubate. That is just not true. One tiny mistake is all it takes.

Failure to Monitor 

Occasionally, the anesthesiologist does not even attend the surgery. They start in the operating room at the beginning, stay for a few minutes, then leave and do not return. They rely on a notification from the surgeon if something goes wrong.

When they leave, the alarms and other equipment shut off. The idea is that these alarms might distract the surgeon and the rest of the surgical team.

Failure to monitor post-surgery is usually the biggest mistake. In the post anesthesia bed, the patient lacks care because some anesthesiologists stop working at that point. Allergic reactions, adverse side effects, or complications can wait to manifest. Patients could relax to the point they stop breathing entirely.

Anesthesia errors are serious. Anesthesiologists need a complete history from each patient, yet errors still occur. Medical malpractice laws provide options for patients who suffer harm from anesthesia.