Common anesthesia errors that may require legal action

Free Consultation713-781-5200

Many Texans who have even relatively minor operations will probably require anesthesia. Whether they are rendered unconscious during their procedures or are given localized pain medicine, anesthesia is an important part of many surgeries.

Administering anesthesia requires the anesthesiologist, the doctor in charge of the anesthesia and her team to exercise utmost skill and care when giving this often very potent medicine to patients. Moreover, the doctor must often carefully insert a breathing or other tube into the patient if the patient’s breathing will be slowed. Likewise, they are usually responsible for administering IV’s and other intravenous drugs.

Even a well-trained anesthesiologist can make a number of common mistakes that can seriously injure or even kill a patient. For example, administering the wrong medicine or overdosing a patient can be a fatal mistake. Likewise, not being sure to ask the patient about drug allergies or failing to check that the patient is not on any other medicines can wind up causing a deadly reaction.

Mistakes involving tube insertion can also cause severe complications. In some cases, an improperly inserted tube can cause a patient to aspirate, which is, take in fluid into his lungs, causing pneumonia. In other cases, mistakes in the intubation process can damage a person’s esophagus or cause brain injuries due to lack of oxygen.

Finally, an anesthesiologist can fail to watch his patient carefully during and after the operation. A failure to monitor can mean that the medical staff misses the onset of serious and even life-threatening complications.

The problem with all of these sorts of injuries is that they are all preventable. Anesthesiologists in the Houston area, and the staff who answer to them, must take reasonable care to administer anesthesia safely and properly. If they fail to do so, our law office can help victims, or their families, hold these medical professionals accountable for their negligence.