In many ways, anesthesia makes surgery possible. It sedates patients so that they do not feel pain. Without it, it would likely be impossible to safely perform many of the operations that are fairly easy to accomplish today.
Unfortunately, anesthesia can also be incredibly harmful if it is not used correctly. Before surgical procedures, specialized doctors administer anesthesia. These doctors, called anesthesiologists, have received training in determining how much anesthesia a person needs, administering medication, and monitoring patients during surgery.
Failure to apply this knowledge when taking care of actual patients may cause the anesthesiologist's patients serious harm.
The first avenue for potential harm is failing to determine the correct dosage for a given patient. Since all people are different, there is no set amount of medication that sedates every person; different people have different tolerances.
As such, the anesthesiologist must determine how much anesthetic an individual needs. Overdosing a patient may lead to permanent brain damage or may cause a patient to go into a coma. Underdosing a patient may cause him or her to wake up during surgery or to feel the procedure being done.
The next way to suffer harm is through improper administration. Patients receive sedation through tubes placed into their lungs from their noses or mouths. Since this is a far distance to travel, careless anesthesiologists may puncture a lung or damage the trachea when inserting tubes.
The final way a patient can suffer harm is when an anesthesiologist fails to monitor the patient during surgery. Since an individual's vitals may change during the course of a procedure, anesthesiologists must stay alert to ensure that their patients are not suffering harm because of the anesthesia.
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