Medical malpractice is a very difficult area of law, due in part to the need to prove negligence on the part of the medical professional. To get more insight into the area of medical malpractice, comments were taken from an attorney and spokesman from the Crowson Law Group.

How does one determine whether or not they have a valid claim? The spokesman responded that, “determining the validity of a medical malpractice claim is based on the merits of the case and requires breaking down details of the case to see if certain elements are there. Every valid medical malpractice claim must show three elements: 1. a significant injury occurred to the patient, 2. the doctor or hospital staff performed in a way that was not up to the medical standard of care as required from such a medical professional and 3. the lack of care or medical mistake directly caused the injury suffered by the patient. While these elements are very important, by far the hardest element to prove is the negligence of the medical professional; and having all three elements”.

The spokesman went on to discuss the example of errors in anesthesia. He pointed out that there are three types of anesthesia:

General – this makes the patient completely unconscious
Regional – this is where only part of the body is anesthetized
Local – this is where the anesthesia is applied to a small part or area on the body

He mentioned that errors in anesthesia have brought about many complications and risks for the patient such as:

Post operation pain
Vomiting and nausea
Serious allergic reaction to the anesthesia
Respiratory problems
Heart attack
Blood clots
Temporary mental confusion
Sore throat
Broken tooth from the breathing tube
Anesthesia awareness

However, he noted that the possibility of some of these complications, such as anesthesia awareness, were very rare. Anesthesia awareness, a complication that occurs about 0.2% of the time, occurs when a person gains consciousness during an operation.
He also gave some examples of error in the administering of anesthesia such as:

Giving the wrong dosage
Failing to monitor the patient properly
Failing to recognize complications as they developed
Failing to monitor the delivery of oxygen to the patient
Failing to give the patient proper instructions on how to prepare for surgery e.g. what time to stop eating or drinking before surgery

With respect to the above, the spokesman stated that, “in order to prove the negligence of the anesthesiologist, the claimant’s lawyer will hire an expert medical witness. The expert will take into consideration pre-surgery risk factors for anesthesia and review the surgeon’s and anesthesiologist’s operation notes so as to ascertain what happened during the surgery. In this way, the negligence of the anesthesiologist will be determined. Bearing in mind that medical negligence is where the medical professional deviates from the medical standard of care. The procedures of proving medical negligence in a medical malpractice case requires experts or physicians from the medical fraternity to determine if indeed the medical professional acted negligently and caused the harm to the patient”.

If you are looking for Anchorage medical malpractice attorneys seek out a law firm of renowned professionals to assist with your case.

About the company:

Crowson Law Group is a law firm of renowned professionals with extensive experience in medical malpractice lawsuits. The law firm’s talented attorneys know the Alaska Statutes with respect to medical malpractice and will represent your interests skillfully. To find out more visit their website at Crowsonlaw.