It was the first court ruling in Canada over the issue of accidental surgical awareness
A Canadian court has recently ruled in favour of a woman who sued doctors at Toronto General Hospital for malpractice. She claimed that due to an error in her anaesthesia, she woke up in the middle of cancer surgery, but was unable to tell the surgeons because of drugs that kept her paralysed.
“Someone was inside me, ripping, ripping me apart,” testified 54-year-old Lynn Hillis, according to the National Post. “It was excruciating. It was burning and burning and burning.”
The complication is known in medical circles as anaesthesia awareness. While it could occur because some patients are tolerant against typical doses of anaesthetic drugs, the judge hearing Hillis’s case ruled that she suffered because of negligence.
After getting diagnosed with endometrial cancer, Hillis went to the hospital in 2008 for laparoscopic surgery — a procedure without a large incision — to get her uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes removed. Hills sued the two anaesthetists who handled her case. One was a staff doctor who did not stay for the entire operation, while the other was a fellow, or an advanced trainee, who did.
Lawyers representing the doctors said they delivered the drugs properly, and the awareness was purely accidental and a known risk factor. Complicating the case was the fact that the doctors could not use certain gaseous anaesthetics, which would have been easier to monitor, due to a condition Hillis suffered from.
They also argued that the doctors didn’t detect any significant change in her heart rate or blood pressure — which usually, but not always, happens.
However, the judge ruled that the fellow made a mistake. In the middle of the procedure, surgeons asked him to reduce the flow of nitrous oxide being administered because it was distending Hillis’s colon. After reducing the flow of gas, he increased her dose of intravenous Propofol — but not by enough, according to the judge.
Hillis’s lawyer, Stephen MacDonald, said she had to undergo months of psychological and psychiatric counselling after the experience. “Even during the trial she was at times very weepy and emotionally upset,” he told the Post.
Evidence from research suggests that anaesthesia awareness happens as often as once for every 1,000 surgeries, but some studies conclude it’s much rarer. In some cases, patients don’t feel pain or aren’t awake for more than a few seconds.
Donna Penner, a Winnipeg woman and spokesperson for the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, also went through an episode of awareness in 2008. It left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, which she still suffers from. She has strived to make more doctors aware of the issue, speaking regularly to anaesthesiology residents and students at the University of Manitoba.
Both parties in Hillis’s case have agreed on compensation. When asked, MacDonald told the Post he couldn’t divulge the amount.
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“Someone was inside me, ripping, ripping me apart,” testified 54-year-old Lynn Hillis, according to the National Post. “It was excruciating. It was burning and burning and burning.”
The complication is known in medical circles as anaesthesia awareness. While it could occur because some patients are tolerant against typical doses of anaesthetic drugs, the judge hearing Hillis’s case ruled that she suffered because of negligence.
After getting diagnosed with endometrial cancer, Hillis went to the hospital in 2008 for laparoscopic surgery — a procedure without a large incision — to get her uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes removed. Hills sued the two anaesthetists who handled her case. One was a staff doctor who did not stay for the entire operation, while the other was a fellow, or an advanced trainee, who did.
Lawyers representing the doctors said they delivered the drugs properly, and the awareness was purely accidental and a known risk factor. Complicating the case was the fact that the doctors could not use certain gaseous anaesthetics, which would have been easier to monitor, due to a condition Hillis suffered from.
They also argued that the doctors didn’t detect any significant change in her heart rate or blood pressure — which usually, but not always, happens.
However, the judge ruled that the fellow made a mistake. In the middle of the procedure, surgeons asked him to reduce the flow of nitrous oxide being administered because it was distending Hillis’s colon. After reducing the flow of gas, he increased her dose of intravenous Propofol — but not by enough, according to the judge.
Hillis’s lawyer, Stephen MacDonald, said she had to undergo months of psychological and psychiatric counselling after the experience. “Even during the trial she was at times very weepy and emotionally upset,” he told the Post.
Evidence from research suggests that anaesthesia awareness happens as often as once for every 1,000 surgeries, but some studies conclude it’s much rarer. In some cases, patients don’t feel pain or aren’t awake for more than a few seconds.
Donna Penner, a Winnipeg woman and spokesperson for the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, also went through an episode of awareness in 2008. It left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, which she still suffers from. She has strived to make more doctors aware of the issue, speaking regularly to anaesthesiology residents and students at the University of Manitoba.
Both parties in Hillis’s case have agreed on compensation. When asked, MacDonald told the Post he couldn’t divulge the amount.
Related stories:
Report reveals $4.2 billion in payments made to BC doctors
Insurer denies 12-year-old’s soccer injury claim, pays hospital mileage cost instead
