Anaesthetic negligence claims

Our medical negligence solicitors have extensive experience in concluding anaesthetic error claims on a No win no fee basis.

'Anaesthetic' includes general, where the patient is unconscious and local, where the area of the body being treated is numbed.

Most anaesthetic negligence claims involve error by the anaesthetist during surgery. These mistakes can be minor, but can have devastating effects.

Such injuries include:

• Brain damage due to failure to correctly intubate, depriving the patient of oxygen
• The patient feeling pain because the anaesthetic administered was ineffective (anaesthetic awareness)
• Nerve injury through negligent damage caused by injections, epidurals and nerve blocks

We have extensive experience acting for patients who have suffered medical negligence due to equipment failure or substandard care by an anaesthetist, or because of inappropriate treatment in intensive care.  

Brain damage involving anaesthetic error

Patients can suffer catastrophic brain damage and stroke because of anaesthetic error during surgery or equipment failure.

Risk to the brain continues beyond the operating room. Post-operatively, generally the longer the patient is dependent on physiological support systems, the higher the risk of neurological deficit.

Anaesthetic awareness

Patients can find themselves conscious during an operation performed under general anaesthetic. The experience of pain and helplessness can be traumatic and can cause significant psychological injury.

Our medical negligence team has many years' experience pursuing claims on behalf of clients who have been conscious during surgery.

Nerve injury

Injury can result when anaesthetic is wrongly injected into the spinal cord or when nerves are damaged during the course of an injection. Some injuries can cause serious pain and disability.