Anaesthetic Awareness Claims

Anaesthetic awareness, where a patient is conscious or wakes during surgery, can be a painful and frightening ordeal, with long-term psychological consequences. If you’ve experienced anaesthetic awareness because of negligent medical treatment by doctors or anaesthetists, our expert lawyers could help you make a compensation claim.

Cases of anaesthetic awareness are relatively rare, but when they do happen, there might be several causes, including:

Incorrect dose or technique when administering anaesthetic
Failure to monitor your awareness during surgery
Problems with equipment.

The effects of anaesthetic awareness can vary, but may include:

Pain during surgery, which you are unable to communicate to the medical staff
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares
Fear of medical treatment and hospitals.

If you’ve experienced any of these symptoms after enduring anaesthetic awareness, we could help you make a compensation claim. Contact our team of experts to start your claim.

Why choose Irwin Mitchell to manage your anaesthetic awareness claim?

You’ll be offered a free initial consultation where you can ask any questions you may have about claiming. There’s no obligation to use our services after this consultation, but we’ll advise you whether we think you can claim.

We’re the largest medical negligence team in the country. Our team have helped thousands of people make a claim against both the NHS and private organisations for anaesthetic awareness.

We understand the long-term impact anaesthetic awareness can have on your life. Our Support and Rehabilitation team are clinical experts and will be there to help you find the support you could benefit from. They’ll make sure it’s suitable for you and that it’s local to you.

If suitable, we can also set up a personal injury trust. This’ll make sure any compensation you receive doesn’t impact on benefits you could claim.

We’ve offices around the UK, so when you need to meet with your expert, you’ve the option to come to one of our offices. If you’d prefer to talk over the phone or video call, we can arrange these for you or we can meet you at an appropriate location. We’ll always work in a way that best suits you.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the different types of anaesthetics?

Three types of anaesthesia can either be used individually or in combination. Before your operation, you’ll meet with the anaesthetist. They’ll assess what type is best for you depending on the surgery you’re about to have.

When you have an operation, you could have:

Local anaesthetic – used when only a small area of your body needs to be numbed. You’ll still be awake but should experience little to no pain. It’s most commonly used for minor operations or when you need to remain awake during the surgery.
Regional anaesthetic – Similar to local anaesthetic, but this affects a larger part of the body. For example it can be used as an epidural to numb the lower half of a mother during childbirth.
General anaesthetic – This anaesthetic will render you unconscious and unable to move your body. You should have no awareness of what’s happening and feel no pain.

What causes anaesthetic awareness?

When you go in for surgery, the anaesthetist and the surgical team must make sure you’re given enough anaesthetic to last for the duration of the surgery. It’s also their responsibility to make sure that it’s given to you properly and that you’re unconscious throughout the procedure.

If things go wrong, and you do wake up during surgery, this could be because of:

Miscalculated or incorrectly administered doses
Faulty equipment or delays getting the right equipment to the theatre
Lack of supervision during surgery, meaning a drop in anaesthetic levels isn’t noticed.

Whatever the reason, anaesthetic awareness can be a very traumatic and painful experience for a patient, with long-term effects. When we take on your case, we’ll examine all the evidence to work out exactly why you were allowed to wake up during surgery, and what should’ve been done to prevent this.

We’ll work hard to get you the answers you need and to make sure that procedures and practices are reviewed wherever possible.

What are the effects of anaesthetic awareness?

Anaesthetic awareness can be a very traumatising experience. Because the anaesthetic isn’t working, many patients can feel the pain of surgery as it happens – however, they can’t notify the surgeons because of the muscle relaxants that have also been administered.

The long-term effects of anaesthetic awareness can be very serious. The pain and helplessness experienced during surgery can lead patients to develop psychological problems, including:

Insomnia, disturbed sleep, and nightmares
Difficulty concentrating
Flashbacks
Anxiety
Depression.

It can also lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and leave patients with a fear of anaesthesia and surgery. This can become especially dangerous to a person’s health if they avoid necessary medical procedures in the future because they're afraid of things going wrong.

We can help you access the support you need to get back on track.

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