Surgical malpractice, including plastic surgery medical malpractice is a terrifying occurrence that injures and kills thousands of Americans each year. Elective plastic surgery procedures including breast augmentation, lipo suction, face lifts, rhinoplasty, gastric bypass, stomach stapling, and other types of procedures are being done in doctor's offices throughout the country. When these procedures are done in a hospital, generally there is a board certified anesthesiologist and a staff of nurses, critical care nurses, and others who deliver the anesthesia, monitor the patient during the surgery, make sure the patient recovers properly after the surgery, and avoids surgical complications.
When plastic surgeries are performed in a doctor's office or a surgery center, anesthesia may be given by nurse anesthetists without supervision by a physician anesthesiologist. Under current law, a certified nurse anesthetist (CRNA) may provide anesthesia under supervision by a surgeon, who often has less knowledge about anesthesia than the CRNA. If a problem occurs with anesthesia or post-anesthesia recovery, the surgeon may not be able to handle the situation. This is where we see a lot of medical malpractice in plastic surgery cases these days, where the surgery is successful but the patient is severely injured or dies, because there are so many things that can go wrong during any kind of surgery. It is important that patients understand the risks when having medical procedures performed outside of a hospital setting.
Anesthesia errors that may occur during a plastic surgery:
- Mistakes in communications between medical personnel
- Untrained or inexperienced personnel
- Failure of the medical personnel to thoroughly study the medical records regarding the patients' specific requirements, including allergies and medication sensitivities
Since the patient is generally unconscious during an operation, he or she is usually the last person to find out if negligence occurred. Most often, medical mistakes can be corrected so that there are no permanent effects, however, some negligence, including post operation anesthesia errors do result in severe medical injuries and even death.
Although a patient in a hospital setting is usually safer than in a doctor's office or surgeon center because of the full hospital staff available during an emergency, medical negligence may still occur, and severe injury or death may still result in a hospital setting.
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