Anesthesia Malpractice: Exploring Legal Options for Victims

If you or a loved one was injured by errors with anesthesia, you deserve justice. Our personal injury lawyers can help you explore your legal options for compensation. 

What Are My Legal Options for Anesthesia Errors?

If you are the victim of an anesthesia error, you can file a medical malpractice claim or a lawsuit against the anesthesiologist or potentially another party. Your medical malpractice lawyer will look into your case to determine your best option.

Medical providers must have professional liability insurance, which means your settlement will come from that policy.

Who Might Be Liable for Anesthesia Errors?

Several parties may be liable for anesthesia errors, including: 

• Anesthesiologists
• Nurses
• Surgeons
• The hospital or practice

We will investigate your case to determine who might be liable for your injuries.

What Compensation Is Recoverable for Anesthesia Errors? 

Our legal team will fight for every dollar you deserve for medical negligence. Your financial compensation could include reimbursement for economic and non-economic damages, such as: 

• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Lost earning capacity
• Out-of-pocket expenses related to the anesthesia error
• Pain and suffering

If you lost a loved one to an anesthesia error, our team can help you seek justice. We can file a wrongful death claim and seek compensation for funeral and burial costs, medical bills, lost support and services, loss of consortium, and other damages.

How Long Do You Have to Sue for Anesthesia Errors?

You have legal options to recover compensation, but only if you act quickly. If you want to file a claim against a medical professional in California, you must first give them written notice of your intent. Then, you must wait at least 90 days before filing your claim, per CCP § 364.

If you decide a lawsuit is the best option, you have three years to take action, per CCP § 340.5. If you do not file before that deadline expires, you risk recovering no compensation. There are some exceptions to this time limit. 

Your personal injury attorney will help you determine how long you have to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. We will also keep track of this deadline to protect your right to recover compensation.

How to Hold a Medical Provider Liable for Anesthesia Errors

To recover compensation, your medical malpractice attorney must establish the following:

• The anesthesia provider had a duty to provide you with a certain standard of care.
• The anesthesia provider failed to uphold this standard of care before, during, or after surgery. This involves proving that another provider in a similar field and similar situation would not have done the same thing. 
• This failure caused your injury.
• You sustained damages. 

It’s important to note that you must be able to prove the anesthesia error caused your injury. If the anesthesiologist or other party made a mistake but you did not suffer injury, you do not have a case.

Types of Anesthesia Mistakes That Can Cause Severe Injury

Any mistake with anesthesia can cause serious injury. Here are a few that our team commonly sees:

Intubation Issues

Some anesthetics require patients to be intubated. If a medical provider intubates incorrectly, patients can suffer tooth, throat, or airway damage. The patient might also suffer swelling, which can be life-threatening.

Incorrectly Administering Anesthesia

Improper anesthesia administration could involve: 

• Administering too much or too little anesthetic
• Incorrect administration route (e.g., intravenous administration for an epidural or vice versa)
• Giving the medication too early or too late (this could mean that the anesthetic doesn’t take effect early enough or that it wears off early, which could cause significant pain and suffering)
• Giving the wrong medication entirely
• Not giving an anesthetic at all (this could be due to a miscommunication within the medical team)

Failing to Monitor Vital Signs

Someone on the anesthesia team must monitor the patient’s vitals throughout the procedure. This is because anesthesia can affect your breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. If no one monitors these signs, the patient may stop breathing or suffer adverse effects from oxygen deprivation or high or low blood pressure.  

Issues With Post-Anesthesia Care

Post-anesthesia care issues can include incubation injuries, brain injury, and a lack of aftercare instructions (e.g., no food or drink for certain period).

Regardless of the type of anesthesia error you experienced, we will seek justice on your behalf.

Wrongly Administered Anesthesia Can Cause Serious Complications

According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists and Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, anesthesia complications can include: 

• Nerve damage
• Vomiting
• Hypothermia or hypothermia
• Cognitive issues
• Hematoma
• Collapsed lung
• Cardiac arrest
• Brain damage
• Vision loss
• Stroke
• Death

Get Help Exploring Your Legal Options After Anesthesia Malpractice

If you or a loved one suffered injuries due to anesthesia errors, you deserve compensation. Our team can help you fight for it. Call KJT Law Group for help recovering compensation for anesthesia injuries: (818) 507-8525.

We handle cases on a contingency-fee basis, which means you pay no upfront fees and only pay our attorney’s fees if we win your case.