Although no surgical procedure can be considered risk-free, we trust the expertise of medical professionals to ensure a successful outcome. As with any procedure, however, accidents happen— but accidents involving anesthesia can have particularly damaging effects. A St. Louis anesthesia errors lawyer can help you understand your legal options if you or a loved one suffered harm due to a preventable mistake. Contact our medical malpractice attorneys today.
Anesthesia plays a critical role in health care that is difficult to overstate. It is also a highly technical matter, and even relatively minor errors can be exceptionally harmful.
Due to the impact of their work, medical professionals and medical facilities are held to a high standard of care. And this extends to their work with anesthesia, which can be as dangerous as it is important.
If your provider failed to uphold this standard, and you suffered harm due to an anesthesia error, meet with our St. Louis lawyers.
Doctors and other medical professionals are only human, and anyone can make a mistake. Simply making a mistake, however, does not reach the level of medical malpractice, which can support a legal claim.
Instead, medical malpractice refers to a failure to implement the same standard of care that other medical professionals with the same level of expertise would under similar circumstances. When it comes to medical professionals who administer anesthesia, the protocols are highly precise, and taking any action that their peers would not have, or vice versa, can translate to malpractice. The same is true of the facilities themselves, which are held to similarly high standards.
Our anesthesia lawyers can review the specific facts of your case in St. Louis to determine if you have grounds for a medical malpractice claim.
Unfortunately, surgical errors rank as one of the most common types of medical malpractice, and those involving anesthesia put patients at even higher risk.
Common anesthesia errors include:
The lawyers at Zevan Murphy, LLC in St. Louis have extensive experience with cases involving anesthesia errors and could help you hold your provider accountable for their negligence.
Anesthesia employs a wide range of medications, and dangerous medication errors like the following can occur:
Even a single mistake can have serious–and sometimes life-threatening– consequences for the patient.
Patients can be allergic to specific drugs used for anesthesia, and failure to accurately identify and adequately account for such allergies can prove extremely dangerous.
Anesthesia dosages must be carefully calibrated in order to be both effective and safe. When a patient receives too much anesthesia, it can lead to overdose, which has the potential to cause respiratory depression or cardiac arrest. When, on the other hand, too little anesthesia is administered, the patient runs the risk of awakening during surgery and of receiving woefully inadequate pain relief.
Incorrect dosage can be a function of ineffective preoperative assessment. This is a key component of medical care at every level and is especially important in relation to the administration of anesthesia.
Medical professionals are required to carefully monitor their patients’ vital signs in relation to the administration of anesthesia. Failure to do so properly can lead to dangerous complications that go undetected as well as to adverse health outcomes. Examples of the critical vital signs that must be carefully attended to include heart rate, carbon dioxide levels, oxygen saturation, and blood pressure.
Medical professionals are responsible for being well prepared to do their job safely and effectively. There is no room for exhaustion when it comes to performing surgery or any other procedure that requires anesthesia. The bottom line is that medical providers who are fatigued, who are not alert, or who are distracted by anything other than the task at hand pose a considerable risk to their patients.
Communication between the anesthesia team and the doctors, surgeons, and nurses on duty must be clear and effective. When there is a breakdown in communications or when the information communicated is incomplete, it can result in dangerous anesthesia errors.
At Zevan Murphy, LLC, our St. Louis attorneys can carefully investigate whether the anesthesia error stemmed from negligence and help you pursue the justice and compensation you deserve.
If you have suffered as a result of a preventable anesthesia error, contact a St. Louis anesthesia errors lawyer right away. Waiting to seek legal representation can prevent you from filing a claim and receiving the compensation you deserve.