Disclaimer: The legal cases presented in this section are actual cases dealt with by Dr A P Boezaart as expert witness. They are not dramatized and are factually presented to serve as learning experiences and teaching tool through cases that have no chance of ever getting published in the regular literature or otherwise reaching our attention. Defense lawyers will never allow their clients to publish their mistakes. The cases are presented in good faith, taking great care to avoid any references that can possibly identify the patient, the anesthesiologist, the surgeon, and the hospital the state or any other factor that may identify the case or put its outcome in jeopardy. Most of these cases are settled out of court and are not sub judicae anymore. If they are still sub judicae that is without the knowledge of the author. If anybody recognizes the case, they are most likely mistaken.
What follows is intended for Residents and Fellows to serve ONLY as a teaching tool. Other practitioners are welcome to read it and perhaps learn from it.
A 42 year-old high earning medical professional that mostly works with his hand (he was a surgeon), and is also a very keen fly fisherman, developed a small rotator cuff tear that bothered him with fly-fishing. He sought the help of a famous orthopaedic surgeon in another state who could fix this tear arthroscopically.
The anesthesia selected for this procedure was a continuous interscalene nerve block combined with light general anesthesia, although the patient expressed the doubt if he needed the continuous nerve block. In spite of that…
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