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Anesthesia is an important part of most surgical procedures. Anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and other medical professionals are trained to use the right amount of medication to keep patients sedated and stop them from feeling what would otherwise be painful procedures. When anesthesiologists fail to do their job correctly, patients can face terrible consequences, even if the medical procedure is otherwise a success.
If you or a loved one was injured, felt a surgery, woke up during surgery, or experienced other bad outcomes because of an anesthesiologist’s mistakes, you could be entitled to a lawsuit. This can help you get compensation for your injuries and the mental and emotional harm you faced.
For help with your potential case, call The Queenan Law Firm today. Our Fort Worth, TX anesthesia malpractice attorneys can take your case and fight to hold negligent anesthesiologists responsible. For a free consultation, call (817) 476-1797 today.
Who Is Responsible for Anesthesia Malpractice in Fort Worth?
For many surgeries, anesthesia is administered by a different doctor from the surgeon who is performing the surgery. Sometimes when doctors use local anesthesia or administer anesthesia from an IV during in-office procedures, they will be the one to administer the anesthesia themselves. Anesthesia is also sometimes administered by nurses and others specifically trained to handle anesthesia. In any case, the individual who administers the anesthesia is usually responsible for any errors or problems with the medication or dosage.
In some cases, there may have been mistakes or errors that the lead surgeon should have noticed. For example, if the patient seemed alert during the procedure or was moving on the table, it is probable that the surgeon should have stopped the procedure, alerted the anesthesiologist, and asked for additional medication before continuing with the surgery. In cases like these, the surgeon might also be responsible for some level of malpractice.
Ultimately, many anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and other medical professionals are employees of the hospital where they work. In these cases, the hospital can often be sued for its employees’ mistakes. This means you could file a case against the individual healthcare professional as well as the hospital, potentially getting compensation from either or both parties or their insurance companies.
How Anesthesia Mistakes and Injuries Occur in Fort Worth Hospitals
The term “anesthesia” refers broadly to a few different types of specific medications. During surgical procedures, patients often receive drugs to achieve multiple goals:
- Keep the patient unconscious
- Stop the patient from feeling the procedure
- Keep the patient from moving
These drugs must be administered properly based on various factors:
- The patient’s health
- The patient’s size/weight
- What procedure is being performed
- The location of the surgery
- The amount of time the procedure will take
- The surgeon’s needs
There may be other important factors to take into consideration as well. Typically, errors involving anesthesia result in one of these aforementioned goals not being met, often because there was a mistake in accounting for one or more of these listed factors.
For example, if the surgical procedure takes longer than anticipated, the anesthesiologist might not have administered enough drugs to keep the patient unconscious the whole time, and the patient could wake up during surgery. Our Fort Worth anesthesia malpractice lawyers can help determine how exactly your injuries happened by talking with medical staff and reviewing medical records.
Examples of Anesthesia Malpractice and Negligence in Fort Worth
The following are all examples of common injuries and complications that patients and their families may be able to sue for in Fort Worth. Talk to a Fort Worth anesthesia malpractice lawyer if you or a loved one has experienced any of these effects during surgery.
Waking up During Surgery
When patients wake up during surgery, the paralytic drugs might make them unable to move or alert anyone as to what happened. As long as the pain-numbing drugs are still in effect, this could be scary but not actually painful. Still, patients can often claim compensation for the emotional distress and mental anguish they faced.
Feeling the Procedure
When patients are awake and the pain-numbing drugs are not working, they could feel the procedure. This could include immense amounts of pain and discomfort. All the while, paralytic drugs could still keep them from being able to alert anyone, and they could be forced to suffer in silence. These kinds of injuries are rare, but they are exceedingly severe cases and often entitle victims to substantial compensation.
Moving During Procedures
Sometimes the problem is not with the painkillers or sleep-inducing drugs, but rather with the paralytic agents. Anesthesia often keeps a patient from moving on the table – otherwise, they might toss and turn or twitch as a reaction to the doctor’s procedure, throwing off the surgeon. If these drugs fail, the patient might move and cause a doctor to slip and injure the patient. This could result in severed nerves, cuts and nicks that lead to excess bleeding, or unnecessary tissue damage that needs to be repaired.
Not Waking Up
Sometimes these drugs are administered in too high of a dose, and patients do not wake up from surgery. This could lead to a coma or even death. Talk to a doctor and an attorney about the effects a coma might have had on you and seek help from our Fort Worth anesthesia malpractice lawyers if your loved one was killed because of anesthesia errors.
Numbness After Surgery
Especially with local anesthesia – anesthesia that only affects one area of your body – numbness after surgery is common. However, anesthesia could lead to permanent numbness, paralysis, or injury. However, these injuries are often caused by some other mistake during the procedure, such as a positioning injury that left a nerve pinched.
Call Our Fort Worth Anesthesia Injury and Malpractice Attorneys for a Free Consultation
If you or a loved one faced medical complications, woke up during surgery, or felt severe pain during a surgical procedure, call The Queenan Law Firm today. Our Fort Worth anesthesia malpractice attorneys may be able to fight to get your injuries compensated. Call today at (817) 476-1797.