Anesthesiologist Manslaughter
| According to Institute of Medicine, each year medical errors injure nearly 1.5 million people in America and these injuries cost the health system more than $3.5 billion. |
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In 1999, the Institute of Medicine called on doctors, including anesthesiologists, to have the medical errors in the healthcare system.
Then in 2004, FDA (Food and Drug Administration) instructed healthcare providers to barcodes at unit-dose level on all medications, include anesthesia.
However, it was found in 2007, that most drugs and medications in the healthcare system in the US were still being given by traditional means and this meant health errors were still being done.
Being an anesthesiologist is dangerous. It is estimated that 1 in 100,000 people dies from general anesthesia and this is the reason why surgeons consider surgery to be the last resort. However, it is quite difficult to prove that a person was killed by an anesthesiologist but this does not stop people from suing anesthesiologists for manslaughter.
In order for an anesthesiologist to be guilty of manslaughter, he would have to be grossly negligent and outside the bounds of accepted medical practice. If the anesthesiologist goes off to sleep or leaves the operation theater and the patient dies, he can be found guilty of manslaughter. However, if a patient has an allergy that the patient as well as the anesthesiologist is unaware of, then the doctor cannot be held guilty for manslaughter.
This said, many people have sued anesthesiologists for manslaughter and at times they have been successful because the doctor was negligent while performing his duties. In these cases, the anesthesiologist did not calculate the dose or watch the patient’s vital signs and take the required action.
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