Anesthesia Accidents
Anesthesia accidents include lack of oxygen to patients, incorrect intubations and removal of the tube. Deaths occur to every 1 out of 250,000 people. Most anesthesia accidents occur because of lack of patient monitoring, but they can happen because of insufficient education and/or faulty equipment as well. Studies have shown that the most common cases involved hypoventilation and discontinued oxygen, which were caused by negligent staff who failed to monitor the patient. These cases led to death, brain damage and cardiac arrest.
Anesthesia includes:
- when intravenous narcotics are used to “put a patient under” or “put a patient to sleep”
- when a patient is numbed with medication at certain levels of the spine
- when topical anesthetic is used to numb the skin and soft tissue areas
- General anesthesia: Complete loss of consciousness. Patients can’t maintain their own airways or breathe on their own.
- Deep sedation: Patients cannot be easily aroused but can still respond to pain. They may or may not be able to maintain their own airways and breathe on their own.
- Moderate sedation: Depression of consciousness. Patients can respond verbally to commands, and they can maintain their own airways and breathe on their own.
- Minimal sedation: Patients can easily respond verbally and only their concentration and coordination may be impaired.