Surgery is a grueling experience, and patients are taken to the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) to wake up before being moved to the general floor of the hospital. Sadly, many patients are ignored, or the monitoring is half-hearted. As a result, doctors fail to catch that a patient has suffered an injury during surgery, and patients will suffer.
Yes, Patients Should Be Monitored
In most cases, nurses are on the frontline monitoring patients. If they notice a problem, they should bring it to the attention of a doctor, who can’t simply ignore you. This duty to monitor is simply part of the prevailing standard of care that medical professionals must follow. If they fail to fulfill this duty, then patients possibly have a claim for medical malpractice.
Many Problems Arise Post Operation
Nurses should monitor a patient’s vital signs to ensure that the patient is coming out of anesthesia properly. They should check blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and other signs.
It is only when the patient is awake that nurses and doctors first discover that something might have gone wrong during surgery:
- Uncontrolled bleeding. A surgeon should have stopped all bleeding before sewing a patient up. However, if the surgical team overlooked a sliced vein, then the patient’s blood pressure will usually collapse, leading to a possible heart attack or stroke.
- Cognitive impairment. Anesthesia can impair a patient’s cognitive function, including memory or motor control.
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. This is the medical term for oxygen deprivation to the brain. Patients can suffer respiratory depression when they receive narcotics like Fentanyl, or lung or throat collapse can lead to oxygen deprivation.
- Kidney and urinary tract complications. Nurses usually ask patients to urinate soon after surgery, otherwise they might need a catheter so that urinary retention does not lead to infection.
- Infections. Poor wound care can lead to a hospital acquired infection, which might be resistant to conventional treatments.
If a doctor is notified of a problem, he or she should take immediate corrective action. In extreme cases, however, patients are swiftly moved from the PACU and discharged from the hospital to free up beds.
Failure to Monitor Is Inexcusable
There are many reasons why doctors and nurses fail to properly monitor patients. Nurses might be poorly trained or overwhelmed with patients, causing them to provide adequate care to none of their charges. Other hospitals suffer from poor communication systems, so patient records are incomplete, and information is never relayed to a doctor.
Sadly, improper monitoring can send patients right back to the hospital as they struggle to overcome a medical mistake. Patients incur massive medical bills and suffer unnecessary pain which could have been avoided with proper post-operative monitoring.
You Might File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
One of the few ways patients can seek justice for a medical error is to file a malpractice claim against a doctor, nurse, and/or hospital. A medical malpractice lawyer will be very helpful navigating the different deadlines and requirements to ensure that your claim is taken seriously. If successful, an injured patient should receive compensation for their medical bills and other expenses.