With remarkable timing, news
of a lawsuit brought by the parents of a teenager left in a permanent
vegetative state after a routine endoscopy coincides with the
announcement that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted
Premarket Approval for the SEDASYS® system, a computer-assisted personalized sedation system.
The patient was not
anesthetized using a SEDASYS machine or any other form of
robo-anesthesia, of course. According to the May 1st New York Daily News article,
“The suit to be filed in Westchester Supreme Court alleges that doctors
improperly administered anesthesia in failing to consider the patient’s
height and weight; improperly monitored her vital signs; excessively
inflated her abdomen, causing cardiac arrest, and removed a breathing
tube prematurely.” The point of the juxtaposition of the two news items
is to highlight the inherent risks of routine anesthesia even when
administered and monitored by experienced anesthesiologists.
The SEDASYS manufacturer, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., a...
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