Anaesthetic awareness basically means that a patient is awake for part or all of a medical operation. Sadly it is not uncommon for your anaesthetic to fail meaning you could end up awake for your procedure.

Having to undergo a surgical procedure can be a traumatic experience in itself but the last thing that you expect is to wake up part way through your operation, resulting in you being in great pain but unable to tell the surgeon/surgical team.

In cases where anaesthetic has failed a patient can often describe the events that happened during the procedure; they may be able to describe the entire operation or part of it depending on when they wake up. Surgeons are aware that there is a risk of anaesthetic awareness happening and because of this there are a number of safety procedures that should be carried out. Some of these safety procedures include thoroughly checking a patient’s history as well as all of the equipment that will be used for faults. Also the instructions on new equipment should be completely read and fully understood as well as all syringes should be clearly labelled so that the correct drugs are administered at the correct time.

The most common sensations of anaesthesia awareness include:

• Pain which is most commonly associated with skin incision and insertion of sutures
• Paralysis accompanied by feelings of great distress at being unable to signal wakefulness.
• Psychological disturbances including panic, a sense of disaster, a feeling of death or dying with subsequent recurrent nightmares, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, agoraphobia, claustrophobia and thoughts of suicide
• In the case of childbirth some mothers resent their baby for the agony it caused and some are too frightened to have more children or further surgery
  

The main causes of anaesthetic awareness are through human error such as using a faulty technique, failure to check equipment and failure to spot faulty equipment. Aspects such as these add up to form a slip in the duty of care that should be provided by medical staff.

If you have suffered due to anaesthetic awareness in the last three years then contact Accident Consult today on 08081 68 69 70 and find out where you stand legally in regards to making a claim for compensation.

Here at Accident Consult we have already helped thousands of people to claim the compensation that they deserve after suffering due to medical negligence. If you want to find out more or if you wish to make a claim for compensation please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.