Anesthesia before MRI Results in Death of Teen

A 14-year girl in England has died due to complications of being anesthetized prior to her imaging scan.

Alice Sloman’s heart was twice the size of normal hearts, a condition that put her in danger when administered anesthesia. Before her scan, she was described as “extremely anxious” and “hypersensitive,” prompting physicians to give her a dose of general anesthesia. According to her parents, they repeatedly insisted to her doctors that she suffered from a series of symptoms including breathlessness.

However, the anesthesia was a miscalculated decision, and three days later Sloman died. Coroner Dr. Simon Fox explained that her cause of death was “medical management was lacking” and added, “the evidence demonstrated that as a result her underlying condition, and specifically a serious cardiomyopathy, went undiagnosed resulting in her dying unexpectedly and prematurely as a result of a routine general anaesthetic."

According to Dr. Fox, she had four conditions that resulted in her death: heart failure during the anesthetic, mitochondrial disease, multiple organ failure, and myocardial fibrosis.

"But she was not referred to investigation of an underlying disorder, specifically a clinical geneticist's opinion, despite her parents requesting this on at least two separate occasions which are documented and despite such facility being readily available in Exeter," he said.