Same here. Not sure "counseling to get over the memories" as the article suggests is needed. I woke up in the middle of surgery only to hear the doctor tell his staff to hold me down. No pain. No bad memories.

I once knew a guy that woke up right in the middle of getting his head surgically removed from his a$$. Sometimes waking up can be a good thing.

I woke up during an endoscopy. They told me "dont roll over and don't cough". Then they said "stop trying to pull that out" as i was choking and gasping for breath.

I also woke up during an endoscopy. They rolled me over to my side and I remember gagging heavily and squirming like crazy. I also remember them saying not to pull that and that it would be 'a few more seconds until the extra dose of anesthesia takes effect. The doctor told my girlfriend that it happened, but I wouldn't remember it. However, that was the first thing I told her when I got out. Have you ever been in the movie 'Alien'? No, not have you seen the movie 'Alien', but actually been in it? It was just like that.

I woke up during a knee surgery due to a car wreck when a plate was being put in. Opened my eyes, looked at the surgical doc staring intently at me, saw another doctor at the far end of the table holding a foot on his shoulder, followed the leg attached to the foot downward, saw that it was connected to my hip, realized I was completely naked on the table, laid my head back down, and went to sleep again. Clear memories, no trauma.

being ...comfortably numb...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1htZFVGsBMw

Waking up during an operation under anesthesia and unable to do anything can be due to to use of Paralytics as part of general anesthesia, preventing movement during surgery.

Paralytics prevent involuntary movement of the patient during surgery as even the smallest of movements, including muscles twitches, could cause a surgical error.

Woke up during by pass surgery in 03. scary stuff, major pain, no speech, paralized and told surgeon about it afterward and he says it happens...thanks guy. at least the surgery went well.

my mom woke up during total hip replacement surgery. while they were sawing through her femur. she felt it all. it wasn't until the were driving the new, metal femur head into the bone that the surgeon finally noticed she was awake-the anesthesiologist never did. she described to me in detail her struggle to move her fingers so that they would realize she was awake. this is the kind of waking up that requires counseling, not that 'moment of vague awareness' waking up. she later refused to have back surgery despite 5 herniated disks, or to have surgery for the cancer that finally killed her.

Stubbed my big toe and didn't even get an aspirin. That so hurt.

Anesthesia is funky stuff and no two humans are exactly alike. Wonder if some kind of brain activity sensor could help this problem.

Woke up during an operation. There is nothing like screaming as loud as you can inside your head, but nothing comes out. Lucky for me, while the pain of having something cut out of me was enormous, it only lasted a few moments before the doctors realized I was "awake" and gave me more drugs to put me back under. But it was the worst 10 or so seconds of pain I ever experienced. I thought it was a dream till I was informed it wasn't.

I woke up in the middle of abdominal surgery. That part I only vaguely remember (Versed is positively amazing btw). What I DO remember is when I woke up in recovery I kept telling the nurse "My arm hurts. Why does my arm hurt?" and she kept insisting it was just a muscle cramp. By the time they let my mother come back to see me I told her, "My arm REALLY hurts." She picked up my arm to see what the heck was going on and my shoulder made the most sickening noise...I remember that and pain feeling like I'd been punched. The nurse then conceded that when I'd come to I "put up a heck of a fight" and had apparently dislocated my shoulder trying to get my arms free to de-intubate myself.

When I had my last surgery I told the anesthesiologist, "I don't care what you do. I don't care if pictures of my surgery wind up on Facebook. Just make sure I stay asleep."

Before any surgery, when talking with the anesthesiologist, I make sure to tell them that I need more anesthesia than most people and that I wake up easily and fast. I make sure they write this down and promise that it will not happen to me. You also want to make sure that the doctors have given you plenty of pain medication before you wake up if you know that regular doses are insufficient for you.

People who have certain conditions, especially those that affect liver function, metabolize anesthesia and pain drugs differently and may need higher doses more frequently. Also, if you've taken a lot of medications for many years, your body may no longer be as sensitive to normal doses -- so your doctors, surgeons, and anesthesiologists need to be told and take this seriously.

There are so many posts with surgical "war stories". I'm sure some of them actually occurred, but I have to wonder if some perceptions of waking during surgery were actually anaesthetic-clouded dreams.

My ex-wife had a colonoscopy with mild sedation and Versed which causes amnesia. She was the kind of person who has a glass of champange on New Year's. They wheeled her out and she was chattering like a chimp on crack and told me that she and the doctor had "a fun time telling jokes to each other" throughout the procedure. The doctor came out to show me pictures of her lower digestive tract and discuss findings while giving me a look that told me her ravings were a byproduct of what she'd been given to keep her comfortable.

Sad to say, my ex was never the same since. Her short-term memory seemed impaired. I don't know if she suffered a mini-stroke during the routine procedure. Very strange.

When I had cataract surgery, they had to put a needle into my eye to numb any pain, after giving me a light sedative. They told me to breathe deeply and I started to, but stopped. As the needle went into my eye, I remember telling them, "Wow, that hurt!", when it actually didn't or I don't remember the pain. Of course, during cataract surgery you're awake the whole time they're working on you, they don't put you to sleep for that.

Weird.

@Kris

Anything to do with eyes just sends shivers down my spine. I can deal with blood. I can deal with broken bones. The though of something going into my eye, however, makes me sick.

TTMaddison, Me too. Sucks doesn't because most don't believe you at first and then you have to force them to check your files.

First time this happened to me I was 12 and having a tonsilectomy, I came to completely and they had my mouth propped open so all I could do was scream and start swinging. I remember hearing the doctor yelling at the anesthesiologist to get me back under and the poor sweet African American nurse I had holding me down and trying to calm me saying "oh you poor baby, oh poor poor baby'... she didn't leave the hospital until I came out of recovery and she was sure I wasn't having any nightmares or any trouble. Sweetest nurse ever, she even came in on her day off because I had to stay an extra two days, just to check on me and bring me mint chocolate chip ice cream.

A lot of people don't realize that anesthesiology is not an exact science. There's definitely the science behind it (chemistry and all that jazz), but its application is very tricky. What works for one person could kill another, etc.

There are a lot of other complicating factors, like whether or not a person smokes. Getting the anesthesia on a smoker just right is a very delicate matter. Could easily kill them or give far too little.

Personally, I'm not sure how much I believe the pain component to it. Most people will straight pass out due to pain even when not paralyzed - if it's as extreme as some claim, I think they would surely have to pass out before it carried on for too much longer. Plus, like the article says, sensations of pain will cause pulse and BP to skyrocket.

Now, to wake up and perceive what was occurring but not feel the pain aspect? I would totally be down to experience that, but that's probably just because of my field.

I remember waking during a surgery I had when I was a kid. Fortunately I think it was before the procedure because the doctors appeared to be moving around the room getting things. I heard someone say that I needed more anesthesia and then I was out

Observer, I'm here to tell you that the human body can experience a great deal of pain without passing out. I once was hospitalized with a migraine and a spinal headache (a "headache like no other," some people call it) and even IV dilaudid tried once at the very beginning did not decrease the pain. For days the only relief I got was when I actually did pass out for short periods.

I'm sure that people have awakened during surgeries, but I'm not certain how reliable their actual memories would be considering the medications they are often given. A lot of these medications affect memory. I have also heard of people who fought endoscopies-the doctors told them that they fought. I agree with those who have said that it would be expected that a person's heart rate and BP would increase if that person were experiencing pain. That was certainly the case with me-the medical staff seemed to question whether I was truly in pain despite my being curled in fetal position and being unable to open my eyes; additionally, though my BP was much higher than normal, everyone seemed surprised that I was so "medically unstable."

Oh yeah, I get ya, which is why I said most people.

I remember one occasion, I had severe gastritis for about 5 days. I have never been in so much pain in my life! As you might know, there is nothing you can really do for it and you just kind of have to let it pass, and it's also not something that will get you some sort of pain medication.

I think in those 5 days, I was probably only awake for about a total of 10 hours. lol I totally bitched out and most of it was spent passed completely out. I just remember from those hours I was awake that I was very tempted to go crawl out into traffic and let a semi-truck put me out of my misery.

Ahh, the good ole' things that remind us of what being alive completely entails...

I became conscious during a surgery, but fortunately did not feel pain. But the surgeon was a little embarrassed that I could repeat his jokes (corny, but not off color) with the surgical team!

Haha! I was told I was joking around during my colonoscopy. I don't remember , but I know i was feeling no pain due to the heavy sedation.

i woke while having my wisdom teeth removed, i was awake for about 5 seconds i think, the anesthesiologist noticed almost immediately, i was lucky i guess, i just remember a second or so of pressure in my propped open jaws

@Fa Tass- You must be a boss... and a pushy one at that! lol I wonder if they listened to you.

That just sounds like you were having a slow-sex (wet) dream..

Sounds like you were ready to get to using them.

Bonnie, I woke up once during surgery on my arm. I remember screaming because it hurt, but I was quickly put back out. I still wouldn't say it was the worst pain I could imagine. I've had three kids. Having a kid with no pain medication was still the worst pain experience I have ever had.

Years ago my grandfather was having an eye removed. He swore that he was awake as they scooped it out. The doctors told him he was imagining it.

If I had told the doctors that I woke up during surgery, and they tried to pass it off as my imagination, I'm pretty sure hell would break loose.

I'd have gone to their superiors, the AMA, the medical board, and reported EVERY word of arguement and "it's just your imagination".

Hope your grandfather did something about them when they tried to argue.

Maria - I have had kids with no pain medication, too, but at least the pain disappeared after they were born. Plus, you have a baby to show for your pain.

I would have to say that kidney stones trump childbirth any day, especially one that you can't pass. The pain is excruciating and you don't know if/when it will ever end. I remember being in the ER, crying hysterically. I immediately got not one, but two shots of morphine.

That when I discovered what a wonderful drug morphine was. lol!

I have woke up in 3 different surgeries. The last was open heart. I had told the the minister of drugs that I would need a heavy dose. I woke up just as they were connecting the vein's that was removed in leg and 1 bypass. As the light is so bright I could see their shadow's and hear them talk. I tried to just move an eyelid but nope. They had me almost numb inside, when he was handling my heart one Dr said the heart looks good. There was pain when they were washing and swabbing the inside of chest. I jumped and went asleep as I hit the table. I was awake when they took me back to the ICLU. couldn't talk because of the air ventilator. When that came out and the Doctor's arrived. They had my chart. They showed me the amount they had used, it was six time's then regular doseage. said it was enough to keep a big man out for several weeks. I asked if my jumping off the table was when they closed. No, it was when they clicked me with the electric to start the heart beating. That has been over 22 years ago. I am 77 now.

It's one of my biggest fears and I can totally understand the need for counseling. I occasionally experience sleep paralysis and hate the utter feeling of helplessness. I've been paralyzed while covers were covering my nose and mouth and I couldn't breathe. Just had to lay there and feel the feeling of suffocating and I couldn't feel a thing. I've been in pain while in sleep paralysis and couldn't do anything either so I don't want to go through surgery and feel that.

my closest experience to this was awakening after an hernia operation and experiencing severe pain at the site of the incision

When I had my second hernia repair (yea...I know...sucks to be me) I demanded local anesthetic at the surgical site so I didn't wake up in such pain

....it was much better

I also had my first 3 knee operations while I was awake. If I could, I would do any surgery this way. When I had my second operation in a military hospital, the older man in the bed across from mine was having a leg amputated and when he woke up he found out that the doctor had amputated the wrong leg.

Funny you said that...while being prepped for an angioplasty, I told the surgical team to put me under before I heard someone say oops!...then I DID wake up to feel the wire going up through my chest...I said "hey guys!...this is starting to hurt!"...bang!...somebody pushed a syringe and I was out again...not much fun!...: /

My wife had angioplasty & she was awake the whole time, (they don't give general anesthesia for that here) they even had monitors so she could watch what was going on.

Yeah, I had a lung removed and now they won't put me out for anything. I've had a couple of operations now with what they call 'milk of amnesea'. It isn't really all that painnful but it's really creepy to be around for all of it.

Had several surgeries with IV sedation. The first one was for bunion surgery and I recall being told to curve my back as they gave me a spinal but don`t remember any pain associated with it. I had a septo-rhinoplasty (nose straightening) under IV sedation and I was waking up when they were still performing some procedures....crushing the turbinates. Definitely hurt but I didn`t suffer any psychological trauma from it. I just remember that it hurt but nothing that traumatized me. When I had my "hooray you are 50" colonoscopy I felt pain everytime they turned a corner (so to speak). I remember it but still no biggy after the fact. I also remember the doctor expressing surprise to the nurse that I was experiencing pain and telling her to increase the sedation but I still felt pain every time. I just had IV sedation the other day to put some bolts into my jaw. Don`t remember that at all and they did not numb up my jaw to do it. What I do know about my own body is that every painkiller doctors have used on me has not worked to date......even morphine into the IV. My body does not appear to react to narcotics or sedatives as expected.....in that they don`t seem to work. I suspect that some people are just like that. It certainly makes me really concerned should I be in a bad accident but what are you to do.

"But I hate it when I hear them say oops!"

Seems funny now, but that would scare the heck out of me.

I hear "oops" in the OR all the time. Usually when somebody picks a radio station no one wants to listen to. "Damn" bothers me, though. "Hmm" is right up there, too.

Interesting fact: surgeons operate faster when music they like is playing than when music they don't like is playing.

Another interesting fact: The surgeons hands are tied up through the procedure, so the anesthesiologist gets to change the station. Speaking as an anesthesiologist, this is a good system. LOL.

Relevant facts: many anesthesiologists avoid using paralyzing drugs when possible, so we have movement as another way of telling if a patient is waking up early. Sometimes they are crucial to a safe operation, however. There are genetic difference in how people repond to opioid pain medications, so it is true that how these meds affect one person can be very different from how they work for another. So Kelcy's story is one I have heard before, and we can often help by using alternative medications for pain - so stay safe, but know that your docs will have things to try should you ever need them.

I had that same thing and was wide awake the whole time watching it on a flat screen T.V. the Doctors were using.

I kind of wonder sometime about the truthfulness of some posts- I have had TEN separate angioplasty's done to put TEN different stents in my heart and was awake each time watching it all on the TV screen- including my own heart beating and seeing the wire and stents being moved about in my heart.

On one occasion I even saw in a reflection on the TV screen of the blood shooting up in six inch squirts from my leg artery when they removed the wire and cleared the artery. The fact I saw this actually freaked out the doctors.

I never felt a thing and was in constant conversation with the doctors each time.

Dick, that is what I said above they don't give general anesthesia for angioplasty not here at least.

Angioplasty as well as endoscopy are not surgeries. Those are procedures, performed under conscious sedation key word being conscious. You are given sedative to keep you relaxed which can make you sleepy and has amnesia effect and you are given analgesic (pain medication) to keep you comfortable. Some people may fall asleep during those procedure and some may fluctuate between sleep and wakefulness, talking and responding to the doctor. The response to meds and amount of meds needed to achive the desired effect varies from person to person depending on whether you drink alcohol (never lie to your doc about the amount of alcohol you drink) or take other pain meds already (among other things). The pain during angioplasty is not from a wire going up your artery ( we don't have nerve endings in our vessels) but from a ballon being inflated in the artery to open it which momentarly occludes that vessel and deprives your heart muscle of oxygen.

Don't mean preach but I am kind of tired of people who snore loudly during the entire procedure and then complain that they were not "put under" and were awake during the whole thing. We don't put you under because then we would have to put a breathing tube in and hook you up to the ventilator. No need for that.

21 heart caths and all under local, never GA. Like to watchthe monitors. But had quad by pass in 03 and woke up in horrible pain but was paralized and could not speak.

Besides that, if one carelessly ripped the catheter out of the femoral artery in the middle of a stenting procedure, it would probably be fatal. I think RandyTT just has a wierd sense of humour.

I was in the middle of herenia surgery and woke up. The feeling was a dull tugging and I could hear the doctors talking to one another about how I probably had more hernias but they would have to leave them alone until they presented themselves because they would probably be too difficult to find at that time. I had peritonitis and nearly died, so the surgery was tricky to begin with. I said, "Excuse me." the anesthesiologist said, "Oh, no, you need to go back to sleep!" It was an eye opener for me, let me tell you!!

I highly doubt you are a trained anesthesiologist Teri, not sure what makes you think that the doctors didn't "keep check" on their patient. I don't read anything in your child's account that would warrant a free surgery. Correct me if I am wrong, but the facts you stated were that they started sedating him and then he heard people talking. That's it? He felt no pain, only frustration from being under heavy sedation and he couldn't respond? I can pretty much imagine how you "raised hell" and demanded your son deserved a very big discount. The world owes you everything doesn't it? You weren't owed a thing. Do the doctors owe a refund every time someone has an unpleasant experience that is no fault of the doctors? If I start vomiting because the medication made me light headed, do I get a free surgery too? Maybe some pain and suffering litigation? I would have sent you up the road packing too. In fact, I would probably throw you out of my hospital on your head. Litigation happy idiot. You are part of the reason medical costs are so outrageous. They have to pay out the wazoo for malpractice insurance for people like you, that will sue just because junior heard people talking. Ohhhh I'm sorry your poor child was traumatized by doctor's voices that had a bigger emergency than him. You were so wronged. You deserve so much more.

Teri

Something is not right with this story. Let me get this. First, based on your story your son was sedated prior to receiving general anesthesia. It's not malpractice to hold up a case prior to induction. Second, your son's surgeon is about to perform a cholecystectomy and leaves to go do an emergent c-section. I doubt this happened. It's very rare that a general surgeon would do a c-section. Maybe you live in a rural community.

inapsin "Maybe you live in a rural community."

reading her story, and hearing her dialect, I figured out from the start she's from the rural country...

"Thats the way it aught to be when they don't keep check on their paitent"

Is keep check even proper english?

That aside, maybe Teri left out a huge part of the story...where her son was actually IN SURGERY when they rushed off to perform another more important one, and he was in pain.

Because all i got from it was that he was sedated, but not knocked out...and very upset that no one could hear him say "you jerks, do me first i was here first...isnt this first come first serve???"...

There are monitors called BIS monitors that monitor the patient's brain waves to tell the anesthesiologist how "asleep" the patient is. We use them on all our surgical cases in the itty bitty rural hospital I work in (in the US). This is the best standard of care. Then you don't have these horror stories.

Jessica: Yep. "Keep check" is used here in the south on a regular basis. It might not be proper English, but if you live here, you understand it perfectly and use it often! :)

As a native southerner, I am offended by those that fail to realize that a regional colloquialism is not considered improper when used in an informal situation. "Failing to keep check" was probably the most coherent thing she wrote. Rural should not equate to ignorance.

That said, either the story left out something or this woman was allowed to skate due to histrionics.

I grew up in a city of over a million people way back when a million was a big number. It doesn't get more Northern than a state bordering Canada (Ohio) and we would 'keep check' on everything from pets to school work. We went 'down to' the store where they would put things in a 'sack' not a bag. I was half way through grade school before I learned that the word 'wash' doesn't have an 'r' in it. I think Jessica is a budding Henry Higgins.

I don't get the confusion here. Even if the boy was sedated and prepped for surgery and then they had to abandon him, I'm not surprised the doctors followed up with a free surgery to pacify the distraught mother. Not sure I agree with that free surgery was warranted but the doctors will usually just do the surgery for free rather than risk being sued by some ambulance chasing lawyer. Especially if the doctors are profitable in that area otherwise.

But their could be more to this story that the OP did not include, such as was the dose dangerous enough to warrant dismissing the anesthesiologist? We all know what happened to Michael Jackson when his doctor deserted him after a dangerous dose.

@David_SF, Actually, Canada doesn't get any further south than Ohio, rather than Ohio being a 'northern state'

I think of Ohio as the most northern Southern State. But not a "Northern State" :)

first, when people have any major surgery, they are intubated (a tube goes into their lungs and breathes for them), they are heavily sedated with anaestheticsand pain medications, and usually given a drug called Curare (which paralyzes you so you can't move during the procedure....including speaking or even opening your eyes). during the entire surgery they are carefully monitored by the anaesthesiologist.

all of that being true pegasus, that does not mean that people never wake up during surgery. people react differently sometimes to medications- their body may not respond in the way most people are expected to respond. it's called an idiosyncratic reaction. a fairly common one is the number of people who get wired and jittery from Benadryl, where the expected response is drowsiness. if a patient has a body chemistry or metabolism that cause an idiosyncratic reaction, neither they nor the doctors may find out about it until they wake up during surgery- and the paralytic may be working great so they can't alert anyone. and I've assisted in enough OR's to know that a good percentage of anesthesiologists spend as much or more time watching the surgery as they do watching the patient.

I've got a buddy that woke up after a 'proceedure' (marriage) and has been in pain ever since...poor guy...

These things could be prevented with BSI and EEGs during surgery.

"Shooting up Fentanyl"? The BS is getting deep here.

Real deep!!

Lol, wow...

uh-huh.......your anesthesiologist can't possibly stand there and shoot up drugs while the surgeon and rest of the surgical team are standing there.

I remember the nurse in Colorado that was stealing the drugs & switching the syringes with used syringes filled with water. The real bad part was she had hep c. I don't know what they ever did to the nurse.

the nurse got some jail time. several of those patients ended up with hep c. I think they also had pain that should have been controlled. Sad thing was that this lady never should have been hired since she had a previous drug problem at a previous place of employment.

here's an interesting article for everyone commenting here that thinks this comment is "BS":

"the junkie in the O.R.", men's health magazine.

chemical addiction has become a huge problem among the nation's anesthesiologists, it's not a joke. it's the specialty with the highest rates of substance abuse among medical professionals. so next time, before being rude and dismissive as a gut reaction, why don't you give open-mindedness and intellectual flexibility a try? your brain, and your [potential] future wiser self, will thank you.

a quote from the article:

"Dr. Booth* came up with slightly lower but equally alarming figures. When he surveyed the anesthesiology chiefs at 133 teaching hospitals in 2002, he found that the faculty anesthesiologists and their anesthesiology residents were four times more likely to have had substance-abuse problems than other physicians. And that includes only the addicts who had been caught."

*a former Duke University anesthesiologist

(It won't let me post the link, but google "junkie in the OR" to read it, it'll be the first search result. it was published in 2006 in men's health article. very well-researched, i might add)

Read more at Men's Health: #ixzz1tE7Gr3Ym

They busted an anesthesiologist in my town. He ran a pain clinic on the side. he had all kinds of drugs in his possession when he was caught. I think he was getting presciptions filled in different peoples names.

I have to finally point out to someone that you really don't need to tell off the people who are "whining about being traumatized" just because you werent, when YOU WEREN'T IN PAIN AND THEY WERE. I would think that had you actually felt severe pain, most likely the strongest pain in your entire lifetime (as some posters as well as the actual article states) then perhaps it may, just may, be more possible to be even slightly "traumatized" than not feeling any pain at all. Sheesh. I would think that wouldn't need to be said.

Right. Imagine if somebody started cutting into your neck while you were fully awake and no pain was dulled. Imagine is a serial killer kidnapped you and did just that, or pulled out your heart for another example. Can you even imagine being awake for that?

"Operating on another child one table over"........two patients would never be in the same operating room at the same time due to sterility and cross contamination...........you were in the recovery room, and the other child had probably just arrived around the same time you woke up and you were becoming more aware.....those were the operating room nurses , anesthesiologists, etc. delivering the child to the recovery room nurse, giving report to her, hooking up monitors, etc......they were not operating on that child. I had my tonsils removed when I was 18, prior to my going to nursing school. When I awoke, everyone was working around a male patient who had huge bandages around his abdomen (now we don't allow patients to be able to see each other due to privacy concerns - we keep curtains pulled slightly to keep them from each other's vision)......so I'm waking up, my throat is hurting, and I started sobbing because "no one was paying any attention to me". Once I became a nurse, I realized how stupid I was - that man had had MAJOR abdominal surgery, and certainly deserved the attention he was receiving. I know from experience that recovery room patients often wake up for brief periods and fall back to sleep again, and eventually realize what is going on. They sometimes remember those brief awakenings and sometimes don't, not always realizing those awakenings were actually in the recovery room, not the operating room.

I hate recovery rooms. But then, I dislike most situations where you have no control over what happens to your mind or body. All kinds of weird stuff happens and you see and hear a lot of strange things due to people in various stages of "recovery". I've seen a man try to pee in a wastebasket, a woman asking about her dog and was he okay - found out later she didn't have one, lots of strange conversations. I always called it the "Twilight Zone".

I remember my 20-something son having a throat operation, a problem with a "ring" in his esophagus that wasn't functioning correctly causing him to vomit after eating. In the recovery room, he regaled all the nurses and doctors with his "EBay is the devil" speeches. After he really woke up, he didn't remember anything about what he said. Recovery rooms are just creepy. Necessary, but creepy.

What country are you from?

Outside of a Total Disaster, there would Never be 2 surgeries in the same OR.. at least Not in the States.

Sure it wasn't a M.A.S.H. unit?

Lmao....

I had emergency C-section surgery under general anesthesia with my first child and I woke up in the middle of it, feeling all this pulling and tugging going on. I remember thinking to myself, "Gee, this should really be hurting but it isn't," and then I went back out like a light. I never even thought to mention it to anyone post-op.

My daughter had surgery to remove a cancerous growth and when we went back for her second post-op check up one of the residents said to her, "You know you almost broke my nose taking a swing at me when you were coming out of it." She remembers none of it, thankfully.

You have know idea how fine the line is between "just enough" anesthesia and so much that the patients life is in danger. The anesthesiologist/anesthetist is the most important person in that operating room - the difference between life and death. The surgeon is the "carpenter/electrician/plumber, etc" repairing a defect. The anesthesiologist has to know all of your health history, all of your medicines, how every system in your body works, and how to coordinate all of those things with the proper and safest anesthesia for the situation, all the while keeping you safe and healthy and as comfortable as possible, and preventing and/or treating complications during and after your surgery. People like you who are lawsuit-happy are part of what are making medical costs skyrocket.

People like you talk out the side of their ass too: When you, me or anyone else need a medical procedure we are placing our lives in the hands of professionals. As you say, these doctors have a lot to manage- fail, and the consequences can be fatal. Bottom line, if you went through a procedure and your 'professional' failed at their duties maiming you for life in some way then you'll seek reparations. Don't sit back and act innocent either or you're being hypocritical. It's not about being suit-happy as it is ensuring you are compensated for suffering a traumatic experience like those described in this article. But if you are so concerned about medical costs skyrocketing then, by all means, don't make a legal suit if you're injured. Then you can sit there on your high horse and keep making judgments abut people you know nothing about and feel so good about yourself.

"Don't sit back and act all innocent"?? I am not an anesthesiologist, nor an anesthetist, so I am not "guilty" of anything. YOU are making judgements of me, of whom YOU know nothing about. As I said - there is a fine line between between giving enough anesthesia to keep the patient asleep and so much the patient is in danger of losing their life. There are instances where they must keep the patient "light" to save their life....such as trauma with a large blood loss (which is probably what happened in the case described in this article), or a very sick heart, or other health issues preventing heavy duty anesthesia. Anesthesia drops the blood pressure significantly, ..........so wouldn't it be better to risk a little bit of awareness rather cause death from not having a high enough blood pressure to circulate to the major organs, including the brain? I believe most hospitals have policies to offer counseling to patients that have recall of arousing during surgery......at least mine does, although I have never cared for a patient that has remembered anything inappropriately, or complained of feeling pain during the surgery while under general anesthesia. One must remember, though, that many procedures and surgeries are done under conscious sedation or unconscious sedation with local anesthesia. In those instances there might be some awareness, although the patient would still be able to indicate if it was bothering them, in which case they would then give more sedation (propafol) and/or transition to a general anesthetic. Versed is a common drug used during surgery that has an amnesiac effect and is used in probably 99% of all procedures, so that helps prevent recall. One can only speculate what the circumstances were in most of these instances described here on the message board, but from the descriptions, a good number of them sound like they were done with some type of sedation anesthesia to me.

You have know idea how fine the line is between "just enough" anesthesia and so much that the patients life is in danger. The anesthesiologist/anesthetist is the most important person in that operating room - the difference between life and death. The surgeon is the "carpenter/electrician/plumber, etc" repairing a defect. The anesthesiologist has to know all of your health history, all of your medicines, how every system in your body works, and how to coordinate all of those things with the proper and safest anesthesia for the situation, all the while keeping you safe and healthy and as comfortable as possible, and preventing and/or treating complications during and after your surgery.

I am not an anesthesiologist, nor an anesthetist

Exactly! Yet you purport to know so much about it up there from your high horse. Then you admit you aren't a professional so from what platform of expertise do you speak from? Yes, your back end!

People like you who are lawsuit-happy are part of what are making medical costs skyrocket.

YOU are making judgements of me, of whom YOU know nothing about

Yeah, keep talking from down below: YOU are the one who is judgmental and the fact you came back here to see if I would have responded is an admission of guilt by itself! Because otherwise you wouldn't have the need to be on the attack against me making these ridiculous posts. That's ok, sit there high atop your perch and keep raining down the judgments- it must be tough having to be omniscient all the time.

Hm-m-m....and you came back, too. I never said I wasn't a professional. I'm an RN with 40 years experience with about half in critical care, and recovery room the other half (which, by the way, is also considered a critical area), nationally certified in both areas of expertise.

You seem to forget this message board is for offering opinions, of which both you and I have.........I can write anything I want, and so can you.

All this argument over the original comment posted that reads:

This sounds like the anesthesiologist sleeping on the job more than anything- lawsuit time!

A simple, nothing statement with 14 words, a hyphen and an exclamation point, meant more sarcastically than anything. In other words, nothing to take seriously- just a joke if anything. Amazing how many nerves it hit with you. One would think after 40 years as an RN you'd be above that. Hm-m-m maybe not so omniscient and all-powerful after all!

One thing we do agree on, this is a message board with opinions and we can each write whatever we want. Yes, so go ahead and keep disagreeing and I'll disagree back. In the end neither of us will be right or wrong and we will have accomplished... nothing. Have a good day.

Yes, a stupid argument where you had an uninformed opinion and Val's was based on facts and experience. Of course you'd continue the fight.

1POV- and you're here because you have something to prove which reveals how basal your level of stupidity really is. This wasn't your fight to begin with and now you've qualified yourself as a newsvine troll looking for a problem with somebody. Choosing sides and throwing rocks will get you nowhere here because you have no informed platform yourself to speak from as it is and you no authority over the other poster claiming 40 years experience as an RN (which is more than likely BS) nor myself who you have less than half the capacities of intellectually and every other which way.

Oh, and of course, you'll be back to continue the fight... but by even coming back to have 'the last word' will automatically negate anything else you can say. Please, do come back and be trumped proving me right as I already am - and I won't even be back to read your response because it isn't worth reading or responding to anyway. LOL!!!! Have a nice day!! :D