Anesthesiologist Lawsuit in Baltimore City

This is an eye surgery malpractice lawsuit filed against an anesthesiologist in Baltimore City. It was filed in Health Claims Arbitration on April 24, 2017 and it is the 191^st medical malpractice lawsuit filed in Maryland in 2017.

A woman has cataract surgery done on her right eye at Mercy Medical Center. Defendant anesthesiologist administers sedative and opioid pain medications. During the surgery, the woman moves her head while the surgeon is operating. As a result, the posterior capsule tears. This causes the surgeon to be unable to remove the diseased cataract in her eye, and lens fragments are left throughout her right eye.

The fragments required another surgery to be done to remove them. During the second procedure, the woman suffers a stroke in her eye due to a retinal hemorrhage. This leaves her with scarring and severe damage to her retina. She is permanently blind in her right eye. The woman files this claim alleging that the defendant's failure to adequately monitor and assess her sedation and consciousness and failure to administer the proper doses of sedative and pain medications led to the permanent injury in her eye.

• An anesthesiologist has to walk the balance in providing this medication. One hand, too much sedation can cause hemodynamic instability, respiratory depression and a host of other problems. Too little medication can cause inadequate sedation, and the patient will inadvertently do themselves harm during the procedure, like this case.
• An anesthesiologist will make assumptions on how much of a loading does is required. You begin a procedure with this dosage but the patient needs to be reevaluated for how sedated they actually are. This is an ongoing evaluation during the surgery.
• Medical malpractice lawsuits against anesthesiologists were quite common thirty years ago. After a lot of prolific malpractice verdicts in the 1980s, the American Society of Anesthesiologists took a long look at why so many patients were being killed. As a result of this review, protocols were drastically changed as were rules about how long an anesthesiologists could work without rest. At the end of all of this handwringing, your chances of dying under anesthesia is a fraction of what it once was.

• Baltimore City

• Mercy Medical Center, Inc.
• An anesthesiologist

• Failure to adequately monitor and assess patient's intraoperative level of sedation and consciousness
• Failure to adequately monitor and assess patient's intraoperative ventilatory function and status
• Failure to adequately record and document patient's intraoperative level of sedation and ventilatory status
• Failure to administer proper dosages and amounts of sedative and opioid pain medications and/or failed to implement other interventions necessary to prevent movement during surgery

• Medical Negligence
• Informed Consent
• Respondeat Superior

• Deborah L. Carter, M.D. - board certified in anesthesiology

If you have suffered an injury as the result of negligence of a doctor or anesthesiologist, Miller & Zois can help you. You are entitled to compensation and justice for the harm you have suffered, and we have a long history of obtaining large verdicts and settlements in medical malpractice cases in Maryland. Call us today at (800) 553-8082 or get an online case review.

• Other medical malpractice cases involving eye surgery filed in 2017:
  • A case against Johns Hopkins alleging that a doctor improperly sutures a man's eye during surgery
  • A Montgomery County case after a woman underwent LASIK
  • This case against Western Maryland Eye Surgical Center
• This anesthesiologist malpractice case filed after doctors fail to properly administer anesthesia
• Airway management malpractice cases and their settlement value