Anesthesia has changed modern medicine. Complicated surgical procedures can take place without the patient suffering any pain. However, anesthesia only works if it is administered appropriately.
While relatively rare, anesthesia errors are common enough to warrant further consideration. What are some of the most common types of anesthesia errors?
Administering the wrong dosage
One of the most common and dangerous anesthesia errors is administering the wrong dosage. This can occur in two ways — administering too little anesthetic or administering too much.
Administering too little anesthetic can result in something known as anesthesia awareness. This means that the patient is conscious during the procedure. They may not be able to move or talk, but they can experience pain and are aware of what is going on. Obviously, this can be very traumatic.
Administering too high a dosage of anesthetic can be very dangerous. In mild cases, the patient may wake up and feel extremely sick for several days. Severe cases of anesthetic overdoses can result in prolonged periods of consciousness, strokes, brain injuries and even death.
Other types of anesthesia errors
Other types of anesthesia errors include:
- Not checking the patient’s vital signs
- Not intubating the patient properly
- Using faulty equipment
- Failure to communicate with surgeons and other medical staff
- Failing to assess patient reactions to anesthetic
- Failing to check warning alarms
Anesthesiologists are highly trained professionals who don’t often make mistakes. Nonetheless, they are only human. There is a difference between mistakes and medical malpractice. If a doctor was negligent, then you may be entitled to personal injury compensation. Seek legal guidance to find out more about the law in this area.