$500K Anesthesia Malpractice Verdict: On February 27, 2023, a Michigan medical malpractice jury returned its verdict in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $500,000 for disability and pain and suffering the plaintiff suffered after he aspirated the contents of his stomach into his lungs during surgery due to alleged malpractice by the surgeon.
The plaintiff underwent surgery on his esophagus in 2016 during which the surgeon used a scope that entered through his mouth. The anesthesia the surgeon used put the plaintiff to sleep but a breathing tube was not used.
The Michigan medical malpractice lawsuit alleged: “Darren Vines alleges that just after the procedure began, a member of the anesthesia team saw contents in Darren Vines’s stomach and asked Dr. Greenspan three or four times to allow them to place a breathing tube to protect Darren Vines’s lungs from the stomach contents.” As a result of the surgeon failing to protect his lungs, the plaintiff alleged that he aspirated and suffered respiratory failure, cardiac distress, and hypoxia.
The defense argued that the surgeon did not breach the standard of care during the procedure.
The Michigan medical malpractice jury deliberated for nearly three-and-a-half hours before reaching its verdict.
While anesthesia is generally safe, respiratory complications such as anesthesia-related aspiration can be fatal. Aspiration during surgery occurs as often as 1 in every 2,000 to 3,000 operations requiring anesthesia. Almost half of all patients who aspirate during surgery develop a related lung-injury, such as pneumonitis or aspiration pneumonia. The most common lung injury is aspiration pneumonitis, which is damage to the lung parenchyma resulting from inhalation of sterile, acid (or bile) gastric contents.
At least one study found that provider factors such as improper decision making, lack of experience and lack of knowledge were responsible for the majority of intraoperative aspiration events. Provider expertise is also implicated in failure of preventive measures, such as the use of cricoid pressure during rapid sequence induction and wide variation in the execution of these approaches to anesthesia induction in the high risk patient. In a retrospective review of anesthesia-related aspirations, 10 of the 14 cases were attributed to improper anesthesia technique. In their critical review of anesthetic management, the reviewers found that cricoid pressure was not applied at the time of induction in 4 cases and provider inexperience contributed to aspiration in a high risk patient in another patient.
Acute intraoperative aspiration is a potentially fatal complication with significant associated morbidity. Patients undergoing thoracic surgery are at increased risk for anesthesia-related aspiration, largely due to the predisposing conditions associated with this complication. Awareness of the risk factors, predisposing conditions, maneuvers to decrease risk and immediate management options by both the thoracic surgeon and the anesthesia team is imperative to reducing risk and optimizing patient outcomes associated with acute intraoperative pulmonary aspiration. Based on the root-cause analyses that many of the aspiration events can be traced back to provider factors, having an experienced anesthesiologist present for high-risk cases is also critical.
If you or a loved one may have been injured (or worse) as a result of medical malpractice in Michigan or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Michigan medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your medical negligence claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical negligence case, if appropriate.
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