It was to be a routine outpatient eye surgery done thousands of times per day across the country. In fact most anesthesia providers would describe it as a boring, bread and butter clinical procedure from their perspective. In Tseng v. Mazzocco Ambulatory Surgery Center, the plaintiff was to have an artificial lens placed in one eye. Depending on the surgeon, this is generally a 10-30 minute procedure done under local anesthesia with varying degrees of sedation. According to court documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the plaintiff claimed both the anesthesiologist and Mazzocco Ambulatory Surgical Center were negligent, resulting in significant brain damage to the plaintiff. And the jury agreed.
The plaintiff contended that the anesthesiologist administered IV sedation in an amount greater than was clinically indicated, resulting in the plaintiff’s breathing being compromised. To make matters worse, the anesthesiologist then left the room and failed to properly monitor … (Continued…)
