Anaesthesia Awareness Claims
Anaesthesia is used to help prevent pain or discomfort during surgery, but what happens if it doesn’t work properly? It could be due to medical negligence.
What is anaesthetic?
Anaesthetic is the medicine given to patients who undergo certain operations or procedures. It is designed to prevent a person from feeling any pain or discomfort during the procedure.
Three types of anaesthetic exist to do different things:
- General anaesthetic
- If a general anaesthetic is properly administered, it will leave patients completely unconscious. It is usually used for major operations.
- Local anaesthetic
- A local anaesthetic numbs a small area of the body. This type of anaesthetic is usually used for minor operations
- Regional anaesthetic
- A regional anaesthetic is used similarly to a local one, but it covers a larger area of the body. It is used in moderate operations when a local anaesthetic wouldn’t be enough pain relief.
Thankfully, most people have no problems under anaesthetic, but sometimes things can go wrong.
If medical negligence played a part in things going wrong, then you may be entitled to claim compensation.
What is anaesthesia awareness?
Anaesthesia awareness is when a patient doesn’t experience the desired effect or loss of sensation from the anaesthesia.
This will be very traumatic and painful for the patient as they will be experiencing high levels of pain and discomfort.
Of course, the level to which patients remember the experience will differ.
According to The British Journal of Anaesthesia, there are two types of memory after experiencing anaesthesia awareness:
- Explicit or conscious memory of the event
- This is where you can remember and describe the event. You may experience this several days after the surgery and experience memories with or without prompting.
- Implicit memory of the event
- This is when you can’t remember the event, but it still affects your mental health and everyday life.
If you have experienced anaesthesia awareness, this could be down to medical negligence by the NHS or a private medical provider.
Why make an anaesthesia awareness negligence claim?
If medical negligence has played a part in your experience of anaesthesia awareness, then you have the right to justice.
Making a claim against a medical provider or personnel - such as the NHS, a doctor, a nurse, an anaesthetist, or a surgeon - can help to prevent what you have experienced from happening to someone else.
It can help to make the provider aware of the mistakes and negligence that happened, and hopefully go some way to helping improve their services.
How much does making a claim cost?
At First4Lawyers we have a No Win No Fee policy. This means that nothing will need to be paid if your case is unsuccessful.
Even if your claim is successful, any legal fees and other costs will be recovered from your final compensation amount at the end of your case.
This means that either way you won’t need to find any extra money to pay for the best legal help.
Only pay a fee if you receive compensation
Our No Win No Fee solicitors will take a success fee from the compensation you are awarded for a successful claim in the form of a percentage of your damages. This could be up to 25% but it won't be more than that, except in cases of road traffic accidents. Changing laws mean our solicitors will now take a payment of 30% of the final compensation amount plus VAT for all road traffic accident claims.
First4Lawyers are an award-winning claims management company with a track record of delivering service that our clients love.
How much compensation could I receive?
The compensation you receive is often dependent on how severe your trauma and pain has been.
You can also claim special damages to recover any earnings or financial losses you might have had as a result of the trauma caused by anaesthesia awareness.
Is there a time limit for making a claim?
There is usually a three-year time limit for medical negligence claims, from the time you were made aware of the medical negligence.
There are sometimes exceptions to this rule so it’s best to get in touch with us at First4Lawyers to find out whether you can make a claim.
If you are unsure of when the medical negligence took place, then you can give us a call and we can let you know if we think you have a claim.
How can First4Lawyers help?
If you think you have a claim then the first we recommend you do is get in touch with us at First4Lawyers.
Our advisors will take down the details about the negligence you have suffered, and then be able to tell you whether we think you have a claim or not.
If we believe you have a case, we will match you with one of our expert medical negligence lawyers.
So just give us a call, claim online, or request a callback. We are here to help every step of the way.
