Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Negligence Claims

If you need an anaesthetist, it is likely that you require an operation.  Anaesthetists specialise in anaesthetics, which is the branch of medicine that primarily involves the anaesthetising of patients to enable them to undergo operations by the administration of anaesthetic drugs, either general (which effectively make you lose consciousness) or local (when you remain awake in more minor operations), though it includes sedation, the administration of epidurals and chronic pain relief.  Anaesthetists also, however, carry out pain-relieving procedures, such as an epidural during labour.

Fortunately, it is very rare for things to go wrong with anaesthesia but it does occasionally happen and, when it does, it can have profound consequences.  If you have suffered an adverse outcome following anaesthesia, things that should be considered as possibly relevant include:

• Pre-operative assessment by the anaesthetist, to ensure that all underlying conditions and potential problems were addressed prior to administration of the anaesthetic
• Management during the anaesthesia: for example, whether the endotracheal tube (ET tube) was correctly placed at the start of anaesthesia or whether it dislodged during the operation, which can result in a lack of oxygen to the brain and subsequent brain damage
• Management following operation during the reversal of the anaesthetic and the recovery period, during which the anaesthetist must be vigilant to watch for involuntary biting on the ET tube or post-extubation laryngospasm (when the airway contracts after the ET tube has been removed, possibly causing hypoxia) or aspiration of gastric contents, which can ultimately result in Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Anaesthetists are also involved in the treatment of patients who suffer a cardiorespiratory arrest in hospital.  They are usually trained in advanced life support and form part of the "cardiac arrest team".  It is possible that a patient may end up brain damaged as a consequence of inadequate resuscitation following a cardiorespiratory arrest.

Anaesthetists also perform regional and spinal anaesthetic injections for a variety of reasons, including epidural anaesthesia in pregnancy, spinal injections for pain relief and regional injections for fracture manipulation.  Complications such as damage to the spinal cord or regional nerves can occur if such procedures are not carried out with great care and the effects can be profound, such as paralysis of the area that the damaged nerve supplies.

Intensive care medicine

Intensive care medicine is the area of medicine in which specialist doctors (intensivists) look after patients in an intensive care or high dependency setting rather than on a normal ward.  In such a setting, patients will usually require life support or other organ support, and they probably also require very intensive monitoring.  While mistakes can happen on the intensive care unit (ITU), it is always worth bearing in mind that patients are usually very ill, which is of course why they are there in the first place.

If you believe you may have a hospital negligence claim, please contact the team by email at clinnegenquiries@kingsleynapley.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)20 7814 1200.