Mum-of-four died after routine op because of 'lack of oxygen’

Published: 18 October 2017

In this news article, it talks about a mother who went into surgery due to having a lesion removed on her right
vocal cord. She was intubated that morning with and endotracheal tube to help her breathing during the surgery.
Doctors have said that the whole surgery was fine all the way up until they were taking out the tubes that they had
placed inside of her throat. The doctors then realized that she had not had oxygen to her brain for 40 minutes. Without
oxygen to your brain for that long causes a hypoxic brain injury, which is irreversible brain damage. They tried three
different times to re-intubate her but did not successfully get the endotracheal tube in until the third try. Three days
later the mother died and the doctors thought at first her being overweight had something to do with the lack of oxygen
to her brain. Eventually the doctors finally came to conclusion that it was hypoxic injury and a mal-intubation that was
the cause of it.

I can use this in my project to help with my topic because I can use this story when I am talking about different
types of intubation. For example, when I am talking about intubating in adults I can use her story to discuss some risks
and bad outcomes. After reading this I did gain some information that I have not been told yet. For instance, I did not
know that 40 minutes without oxygen to the brain causes an irreversible hypoxic brain damage. In the article it says,
“She said after the first two attempts, where it was thought the tube was correctly sited in the trachea, end tidal carbon
dioxide was still absent.” I can use that quote in my presentation when I am discussing risk factors included in
intubating. Following that I can talk about how different people have different complications involving their airway.

Reading this article, I felt bad for the doctors and the mom on the table. I feel like it should have been
monitored a little bit better with how she was breathing and once they realized she was having complications or felt
unsure, they should have jumped right into doing whatever they could do to help her. After reading this article, I’m
curious if other Anesthesiologists have heard about this and if they have focused more into making sure the patient is
breathing properly after taking out the intubating tube. I felt sad for the four kids she has because now of complications
of not getting oxygen to her brain, they lost a mother. Losing my mom because of complications by the doctors I would
have been slightly angry. I am curious if the anesthesiologists since then have been stricter on checking a patients’
oxygen levels and determining if it is enough. I think it is good that the nurses tried three different times to intubate but
I feel like they should have been able to get it in faster than 40 minutes.

Citation:

“Mum-of-Four Died after Routine Op Because of 'Lack of Oxygen'.” News & Star, 18 Oct. 2017,
www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/Mum-of-four-died-after-routine-op-because-of-lack-of-oxygen-13d88c65-8dfa-
419b-9004-683e920d7427-ds.