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The Good and the Bad of Anesthesia.

All of us have witnessed or experienced firsthand the miracles of modern medicine. Whether it’s your child whose broken leg was fixed up after he was hit by a car, the relative who had her life-threatening cancer successfully treated, or even when you had your impacted wisdom teeth removed, the fat is that at some point, we will all rely on medical professionals, including anesthesiologists, to perform their specialties with great care and expertise in order to maintain our quality of life.

Anesthesia, when properly administered, allows us to undergo a wide range of procedures that would otherwise be impossible if we had to feel the pain associated with surgery. And the vast majority of the time, there are no major complications associated with the use of anesthesia. However, mistakes can and do happen, and when they do, the results can be deadly.

Recently, the National Institute of Health provided an analysis of a report issued by the American Journal of Anesthesiology published in April 2009, which studied anesthesia deaths from 1995 to 2005. The report cited 2,211 deaths during that time period either directly related to anesthesia, or where anesthesia was a factor.

Several factors contributing to anesthesia mistakes:

• Insufficient or inaccurate medical history completed by the anesthesiologist.
• Poor monitoring of the equipment and/or the patients’ status during the procedure.
• Inadequate training by the anesthesiologist or medical staff.
• Equipment malfunction.
• Failure to follow procedure.
• Lack of communication during the procedure between medical team members.
• Inaccurate dosing or dispensing of medication.

What happens when mistakes are made with anesthesia? Anesthesia mistakes can lead to low blood pressure or inadequate blood flow to major organs including the brain. These mistakes often are catastrophic, resulting in heart attack, stroke, paralysis, brain damage, or death. If the patient survives, the emotional and monetary costs of long term care and loss of income can be devastating. In many cases, family members are left mourning the death of a loved one, and struggling with the related emotional and financial impact that the loss brings.

Complicated medical procedures and records must be carefully studied by an experienced anesthesia malpractice attorney in order to protect your rights. If you or a loved one has been a victim of an anesthesia mistake, contact a malpractice attorney to discuss your rights.