Washington’s Leading Anesthesia Error Lawyers

Have you or a loved one suffered an injury due to an anesthesia error? The consequences of these errors can be catastrophic for entire families. Mistakes can result in permanent disability, mountains of medical bills, loss of employment, and injuries up to and including death. 

If you don’t make a personal injury claim over acts of neglect, then you will likely have to bear the costs and lost opportunities alone. An anesthesia error lawyer can help you make a claim and request compensation to help you cover losses that resulted from a neglectful doctor, hospital, drug manufacturer, or other irresponsible party. 

If you’re ready to discuss your anesthesia error claim, you can get started by filling out our Anesthesia Error Contact Form. Leave a few details about your situation, and we’ll contact you to schedule an appointment to see if we’re a good fit for your situation.

The best way to get answers regarding anesthesia malpractice claims and how the process works is to speak directly to a lawyer for legal advice. While the following information is not legal advice, it may help you understand what to expect from the courts.

Who is Responsible for Anesthesia Care?

When patients undergo surgery, they don’t just rely on the surgeon; they also trust the people who provide anesthesia. Inattention and mistakes during this critical phase of care can have dangerous consequences.

Anesthesia may be provided by a medical doctor with special training in anesthesia (an “anesthesiologist”) or by a specially trained advanced practice nurse (a “nurse anesthetist” or “CRNA”). Sometimes, medical residents in training will be involved in providing anesthesia care. 

In some cases, anesthesia will be administered by contractors and traveling employees who have less experience with hospital procedures. 

All medical professionals who apply anesthesia in Washington State owe a duty of care to their patients. They are liable for mistakes that happen when they fail to adhere to the accepted standard of care. 

In most cases, patients will not know exactly who will provide their anesthesia care until shortly before the procedure. During longer surgeries, responsibility for anesthesia is commonly handed off during meal breaks or at the end of a shift. You may need the assistance of anesthesia error attorneys to request these documents.

You may be unsure if the anesthesia error that caused your injury is eligible for a claim. As you’ll learn in the next section, there are many ways that anesthesia can be administered recklessly. 

How Do Anesthesia Complications Occur?

Care must be taken, as errors can occur in all phases of anesthesia. Mistakes can start when the patient is first being processed. For example, patients must be properly assessed for risk factors such as sleep apnea, medication allergies, and prior bad reactions to anesthesia. Any conditions that could cause reactions must be managed from the start. 

The anesthetic medication must be given in appropriate doses in the operating room. Procedures may require constant monitoring of patient conditions, and this monitoring can fail due to healthcare provider errors or medical device errors. 

During surgery, patients must be carefully monitored and positioned to avoid airway problems and nerve damage. At the end of surgery, the anesthesia must be “reversed,” which requires close attention by the surgical and post-surgical care team.  

Beyond the operating table, the recovery room team is critical in responding to over-sedation and keeping patients safe. Examples of negligent anesthesia care include:

• Failure to identify patients with pre-existing airway problems, including obstructive sleep apnea
• Mistakes in calculating and administering medication doses
• Failing to account for allergic reactions
• Errors in delivering spinal and epidural anesthesia
• Improper placement of breathing tubes and IV lines
• Missing critical changes in the patient’s condition, including blood oxygenation levels and blood pressure
• Improper positioning of the patient
• Discharging patients from the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) before they have recovered from the effects of anesthesia
• Delays in responding to critical problems during or after anesthesia care

A fundamental goal of anesthesia care is to safely sedate and numb patients while still delivering all of the oxygen the body needs to fuel the brain, heart, and other critical organs. During “general anesthesia,” a breathing tube and ventilator are necessary. 

In “conscious sedation,” a patient is medicated but continues to breathe independently during the procedure. In either type of anesthesia, patient oxygenation problems can quickly turn dangerous. Lack of oxygen can result in:

• Brain damage
• Seizures
• Stroke
• Heart attacks
• Organ failure
• Death

How Do I Know If There Was a Medical Error?

Family members are often told that there are “complications” after a patient is injured or dies as a result of an anesthesia error. Family members frequently have unanswered questions about what happened and wonder about mistakes or negligent care.

The attorneys at Tinker Law Firm, PLLC, are experienced in reviewing anesthesia error cases and searching for red flags in the medical record. The firm also consults experts, anesthesiologists, anesthetists, and nurses to review medical records and provide their opinions about care. 

To discuss your situation with our team, call us today or fill out our online contact form for a free claim evaluation.

How Can Tinker Law Firm Help Me with Anesthesia Claims?

Our lawyers can assist you with the complete process of making your anesthesia mistake claim. That includes helping you with the original filing within the Washington State deadlines for personal injury claims. We can negotiate with insurance companies or hospital systems to settle your claims for an appropriate amount.

If your medical malpractice claims go to trial, we can represent you in court and argue your position to either a judge or a jury. We may recommend that you hold out for a later settlement if we think the first offer is inadequate, but it will depend on the circumstances of your case. 

During your consultation, we can discuss examples of anesthesia malpractice cases and what typically happens in cases like yours. We’ll help you understand whether your case will likely succeed and how long cases like yours will take while moving through court.

Our law firm has been handling medical malpractice lawsuits for many years. Below are some examples of cases that we’ve resolved involving medical negligence. 

$3.6 million settlement with a hospital for delayed Code call and administration of wrong drug

Our client sustained a severe brain injury when she reacted adversely to a drug given to her by a nurse in the recovery room following a cesarean delivery. The nurse administered what was believed to be Demerol to control postoperative shivering. Within moments, our client became completely non-responsive and had trouble breathing. Her breathing was finally re-established, but the damage was already done due to the delay in the call to the Code Team.

The medical records did not explain what happened or why. The facts above were gathered through intensive discovery, including 28 depositions of physicians, expert witnesses, and other eyewitnesses. We spoke to over 20 experts, who began hypothesizing that the medication administered by the nurse could not have been Demerol but must have been some sort of paralytic drug. 

Other than our client’s symptoms, there was no evidence in the medical records or hospital drug records that the wrong medication was given. However, we were able to develop evidence of general substandard drug handling practices at the hospital that potentially could have led to a mistaken drug injection. This was a case that many other attorneys declined to investigate, including experienced Seattle area medical malpractice attorneys. We spent hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars putting the case into a settlement posture.

$2.75 million settlement in King County for failure to address poor airway

We represented the wife and children of a 40-year-old man who died three days after neck surgery. A well-recognized risk of the particular procedure is postoperative swelling/edema and hemorrhage, which can compromise the airway. Given that risk, the hospital nursing staff was required to watch for signs and symptoms of these complications and react to them quickly if they appeared. We argued they failed this duty.

For hours post-surgery, the patient complained of breathing difficulties to the nursing staff. The nurses documented the complaints in the medical chart but did not notify a physician or undertake any intervention. On the morning after surgery, the patient was found unconscious and unresponsive in his hospital bed. According to the records, the trachea by that time had been reduced to a “pinhole” by bleeding and swelling in the neck. It took nearly 40 minutes to open an airway by intubation. The prolonged period of inadequate oxygenation left the patient severely brain-damaged. He remained in a coma until his death two days later.

$2.8 million settlement for negligent care by an unqualified resident

In this case, our client was a Pierce County infant and his family. While clinic personnel at the clinic the mother went to for pregnancy care recognized her as a high-risk patient, her care was transferred to an unlicensed third-year family medicine resident whose labor and delivery experience consisted of ten weeks of training at a local hospital.

The baby was born with severe injuries, which we argued were due to asphyxiation caused by multiple acts of negligence and failures of care during labor and delivery. He will require lifelong, around-the-clock care and will be unable to perform any of the activities of daily living independently.

The defense argued that the infant’s injuries were probably caused by factors unrelated to healthcare, possibly including poor nutrition (lack of food) and a blow to the mother’s abdomen during pregnancy.

Discuss Your Case with an Experienced Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Seattle 

Tinker Law strives to be Seattle’s Medical Malpractice Firm. Our team will support you throughout the anesthesia error claim process. We know that anesthesia injuries can strain families terribly, and we support our clients with attention and compassion. 

If you are concerned that you may not be able to afford to file a medical claim, you should know that we are willing to work on contingency, which means you will not have to pay your lawyer fees unless and until we win your case. 

Get started on our Anesthesia Error Contact Form. Leave us some details about your personal injury or wrongful death case, and we’ll contact you back to let you know if we’re the right medical malpractice attorneys to assist you. We’ll help you schedule your free case evaluation if we’re a good match.