Can You Sue If Anesthesia Goes Wrong?
Gregg Hollander | November 16, 2025 | Uncategorized
Yes. Anesthesia errors are a recognized basis for medical malpractice claims.
Most people go under anesthesia with the expectation that they will wake up, feel groggy, and eventually go home. When something goes wrong in the anesthesia process, the consequences are often catastrophic.
When anesthesia goes wrong, it often involves:
- Anesthesiologists
- Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs)
- The surgical team as a whole
The key question is whether the anesthesia care met the prevailing professional standard for that situation. That includes:
- Choosing a safe anesthetic technique
- Anticipating and planning for a difficult airway
- Monitoring vital signs and oxygenation properly
- Responding quickly and appropriately when complications arise
If those duties are breached and a patient is harmed, a malpractice case may be appropriate.
What Are The Big 5 Anesthesia Complications?
The most serious anesthesia related complications I see involve:
- Respiratory complications, including failure to secure or maintain an airway
- Cardiovascular collapse or dangerous arrhythmias
- Nerve injuries from improper positioning or needle placement
- Brain injury and postoperative cognitive problems due to lack of oxygen or blood flow
- Complications from failed or improper intubation of the airway
That last category is one of the most common sources of large anesthesia malpractice cases. When the airway is not secured in time, the brain is deprived of oxygen and permanent damage or death can occur.
What Is The Most Common Malpractice Claim Against Anesthesiologists?
The most frequent theme I see in anesthesia cases is failure to manage a difficult airway properly.
Typical elements include:
- Inadequate preoperative assessment of the airway
- Lack of familiarity with advanced intubation techniques
- Repeated failed attempts at intubation without changing strategy
- Failure to perform an emergency surgical airway when needed
Anesthesia is, at its core, controlled management of a patient’s airway and vital functions. When that is not done competently, the outcome can be tragic.
What Is a Real Life Example of Medical Negligence?
How a Routine Dental Infection Led to Death From Anesthesia Malpractice
One of the most heartbreaking cases I have handled involved a man in his mid fifties who went to the hospital for an infected lower molar. He had swelling and pain in his jaw and did what he was supposed to do. He went to the emergency department.
The hospital admitted him. An oral surgeon planned an incision and drainage procedure to open and clean the infection. It is a relatively simple procedure that is often performed in an office with local anesthesia. Instead, they chose to put him under general anesthesia.
There was a known problem. Because of the infection and swelling, he had trismus, or lockjaw. He could barely open his mouth. That should have alerted the anesthesia team that this was a difficult airway.
Their plan was simplistic: they would put him under anesthesia, try to intubate him, and if they could not, they would wake him up.
In the operating room, multiple attempts at intubation failed. Their “bag of tools” was limited. They were not skilled in the alternative techniques that exist for patients who cannot open their mouth adequately. His airway became compromised, and he was not being ventilated.
They attempted to wake him, but by then it was too late. He went into respiratory arrest. A code blue was called. CPR was performed. Eventually they restored his heartbeat, but he had suffered profound brain damage from lack of oxygen.
He survived for a few days on life support, but he was essentially brain dead. His only daughter eventually had to make the excruciating decision to withdraw life support. He went into the hospital with a toothache and never came home.
From a legal perspective, this was a classic anesthesia malpractice and wrongful death case rooted in:
- An unnecessary choice of general anesthesia for a simple procedure
- Failure to plan appropriately for a known difficult airway
- Failure to use or call in advanced airway techniques
- Failure to establish a surgical airway when intubation attempts repeatedly failed
That is what anesthesia malpractice looks like in real life.
