Anaesthetic Awareness Claims

What Is Anaesthetic Awareness Negligence? 

Anaesthetic awareness negligence is when a patient is conscious or semiconscious during surgery due to negligent care from a medical professional. This can be painful and frightening for patients and the consequences can be devastating. All medical professionals have a duty of care and if this has not been met and you have suffered from anaesthetic awareness because of this negligence, you could be able to make an anaesthetic awareness claim. 

Common Reasons For Anaesthetic Awareness

Anaesthetic awareness is relatively rare, however when it does occur it can be devastating for patients, below are some of the reasons that anaesthetic awareness may occur: 

Incorrect dosage

The wrong dosage of medicine is a common reason for anaesthetic awareness. If the dosage was too low and starts to wear off during surgery, you may start to regain your sensations of touch, sound, smell and even sight.

If this happens, the sensation is usually brief, but patients have been known to be able to recall conversations between those operating and hear the room’s machinery around them. If this happened to you, our team will take a detailed statement to use as evidence in making an anaesthetic injury claim.

Medical condition-related surgery

There are a number of risk factors which can increase the risk of anaesthetic awareness during surgery. These include:

Patient factors

• Being aged 25-45
• Being classed as obese
• Being female

Types of Surgery

• Obstetric (childbirth) surgeries
• Thoracic (chest) surgeries
• Cardiac (heart) surgeries

These types of surgery are higher risk because the use of anaesthesia itself is higher risk. For example, in childbirth cases, surgeons need to consider the effect of anaesthesia on both mother and child and may misjudge the correct dose.

Clinical Settings

• Use of muscle relaxants
• Emergency use of anaesthesia
• Out of hours surgery
• Interaction with other medication
• Alcohol and drug use

For these reasons, it is vital that the operating clinicians take as full and detailed a medical history of their patients as they can before surgery. This puts them in the  position to make the best possible judgement about the treatment to give.

Inexperienced medical staff

Another factor is when the anaesthesia is performed by inexperienced or unsupervised trainees or medical professionals.

For a clinical negligence claim to be successful, it is first necessary to show that the care you received was below the standard to be expected of a reasonably competent medical practitioner. This applies to trainees as much as it does to fully-qualified staff, because it is assumed that they will have received proper supervision and training.

Experience and know-how is key, and those monitoring the anaesthetic should have the necessary level of training and experience. If that is not so, then there may have been negligence.

Equipment failure

Faulty equipment can be another reason for anaesthetic awareness. All necessary equipment should be checked at the start of every day to ensure that it is in working order, and there should be back-up equipment and drugs available at all times. Staff should be trained and equipped to deal with  situations where both main machinery and any back-ups are faulty.

What It Means To Suffer Anaesthetic Awareness

A comprehensive national survey of anaesthetists found that reports made to them of accidental awareness during general anaesthesia (AAGA) were rare, at about one case per 15,000 general anaesthetics. However, while the numbers are small, these cases often settle in the claimant’s favour.

If you are considering making an anaesthetic injury claim, you may be experiencing one or more of many debilitating after-effects, which include (but are not necessarily limited to):

• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Other ongoing psychiatric conditions
• Flashbacks
• Anxiety

Flashbacks as a result of anaesthetic awareness or anaesthetic negligence are vivid experiences whereby an event or time of trauma feels as if it is happening once again.

For some, flashbacks can feel as if somebody is replaying what happened to you in technicolour detail, as if watching a film. To others, there are signs of:

• What happened being replayed before their eyes
• Taste, sounds and smell can become extremely sensitive
• Feelings of pain can arise, almost from nowhere, related to the incident
• Memories or thoughts at the time of the incident can come back

If you have experienced any of the above after effects as a result of anaesthetic awareness, you could be entitled to compensation and our team of medical negligence solicitors can help you make a claim. 

How The Patient Feels During Anaesthetic Awareness

When anaesthesia awareness does happen, patients report varying levels of sensations and awareness.

Most patients will only experience a hazy and very brief awareness, frequently one incident during surgery – for example, the sensation of something being inserted into their mouth, or awareness of people moving and talking around them. Slightly more serious are those cases where the patient is conscious of their surroundings but experiences paralysis. Most episodes of awareness are short, lasting no more than five minutes, but no less distressing for that.

There are also rare examples where a patient experienced incredible physical pain; worse still, they were unable to communicate what was happening.

Most instances of anaesthetic awareness happen at the beginning or end of surgery – as the surgeon is putting you to sleep or you are waking up.

If you have felt anything at all under general anaesthetic, then those responsible for ensuring that you were unconscious may have breached their duty of care to you. Generally speaking, under the correct dosage of anaesthetic, you should not feel a thing because of your unconscious state. If this has happened to you, get in touch with our legal team to see if you can make a claim on a no win no fee basis. 

Am I Eligible To Make An Anaesthetic Awareness Claim

If you have suffered from anaesthetic awareness that was due to negligence, it is possible that you could claim compensation for the suffering that was caused. 

Anaesthetic awareness is very rare, but when it does happen and a mistake has been made it can have devastating effects for the patient. If you believe that you suffered from anaesthetic awareness due to negligence, whether it be due to the wrong amount of medicine, equipment failure or inexperienced medical staff, then you could be entitled to compensation. 

The best thing to do if you believe that you could be entitled to make a claim is to get in touch with us. At Patient Claim Line, we can assess your case on a no win no fee basis and advise you as to whether or not you could receive compensation for your suffering. It costs you nothing to find out and all of our anaesthetic awareness claims are dealt with by specialist medical negligence lawyers so you can be sure you are dealing with experts who will be able to assess your case properly. 

How Long Does It Take To Make An Anaesthetic Awareness Claim?

If you make an anaesthetic awareness claim, we will aim to get the compensation you deserve as soon as possible. However, every claim is different and the time taken to settle will depend on your specific case. It is important that all of the necessary evidence and information is collected carefully to prove that negligence did occur and you suffered as a result of this. 

More complicated cases can take longer as the long term effect of the anaesthetic awareness needs to be understood before the claim is settled. This is to make sure that the patient gets the full amount of compensation that they deserve due to the suffering caused by medical negligence. 

Processing Your Anaesthetic Awareness Claim

To make your anaesthetic awareness claim, you can speak with our specialist and expert medical negligence team today.

When you call, you will receive a free consultation that will allow you the opportunity to share your experiences with a registered, legal partner.

In addition to this, any information that we take from you will be done so in line with the very latest data protection and GDPR regulations, safely and securely.

From your initial enquiry, right through to finding out if your claim has been accepted, we will respond quickly and compassionately, explaining the validity of your case in transparent terms. 

We are flexible in our approach and have experts in every claim area ready to take your call and provide advice today.

Any claim made will operate on a No Win No Fee basis, and we are also the UK’s top-rated Medical Negligence specialists, according to TrustPilot.