Anesthesia Malpractice

Anesthesia errors occur frequently during surgeries, but most are recognized and corrected during the surgery. Patients rarely, if ever, learn about them. It is only after a patient dies, or if some serious problem is identified following surgery, that a patient or family may learn about some problem with the anesthesia. Since most anesthesiologists never meet the patient or family before the surgery, and if they do it is usually just prior to the start of surgery, there is little opportunity for a patient or family to check the credentials or background of the most important person for any surgery. Patients will often seek multiple opinions from surgeons--especially for elective surgery--or at least undertake detailed discussions with the surgeon about the risks and benefits of even non-elective surgery. They rarely consider the role or obligation of the anesthesiologist both during surgery and in the immediate post-operative recovery room. Many patients will successfully survive surgery only to develop serious problems in the post-anesthesia recovery room where the surgeon usually defers to the anesthesiologist for all evaluation and management decisions.