When you go in for major surgery, you will get general anaesthesia so that you’re unconscious
during the surgery.
This ensures that you’re not going to be aware of what’s happening during the procedure,
and you also wont remember what happens after the surgery is over.
Which, I’m not mad about.
The last thing I would want to remember is a bunch of surgeons poking around inside me
with medical instruments.
But there is a rare instance where a patient actually wakes up during surgery even though
they’ve received general anaesthesia, and they are conscious during the procedure.
SO what if you woke up during surgery?
That’s the question we’re asking today on life’s biggest questions.
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Anaesthesia is a very important part of the medical world.
Physician anaesthesiologists are some of the most highly skilled experts in the field.
An anaesthesiologist needs to be properly trained, and proper training could mean the
difference between life and death.
Every person will need a specific amount of anaesthesia.
Natural redheads, for example, require more anaesthesia than the average person because
redheads feel more pain than the average person.
Don’t believe me?
Its science.
For real, look it up.
So if you’re a redhead and you’re going in for surgery, make sure your anaesthesiologist
knows that you’re a natural redhead, otherwise the right amount of anaesthesia won’t be
given to you, and there’s a chance you could become conscious during your surgery.
People who have fast metabolisms also could require more anaesthetic.
Smokers also could need more anaesthetic.
One or two out of every 1 thousand surgeries involving general anaesthesia results in a
patient waking up during the procedure.
When a patient is conscious during their surgery, its called anaesthesia awareness.
Patients who have experienced this are able to remember their surroundings after the surgery,
or recall an event related to the surgery.
This is obviously very emotionally upsetting, but the good news is, even though you’re
awake, you cant feel pain.
Some patients report feeling pressure.
Patients wake up with tubes in their mouths, and quickly realize that they are connected
to IV’s and various different medical machines.
A lot happens during surgery that patients are unaware of.
Doctors and nurses could be having conversations that they definitely didn’t want you to
hear.
Sometimes medical staff will pass out or throw up from the sight of an open body.
Imagine seeing a nurse throw up at how gruesome a surgery was, all the while knowing that
the surgery was being performed on your own body.
If you woke up during surgery, it can be a really traumatic experience.
You’ll be able to see and hear doctors cutting or carving out chunks of your body.
It would be terrifying.
Like a POV horror movie.
If it happens, you have to make sure that you discuss it with your anesthesiologist
after the surgery is completed.
In some cases, patients will need to seek counselling to deal with the trauma.
You could feel stressed, confused, or disturbed following anaesthesia awareness.
The worst part of anesthesia awareness, is you probably wont be able to let anyone know
that you’re awake.
You cant talk because there’s a tube in your mouth.
You’ll try to move, wiggle your toes or fingers, anything to let the medical team
know that you’re aware of what they’re doing, but they still wont know, and the surgery
will carry on.
Ever experience sleep paralysis?
Yeah, it’ll be kind of like that.
The only way a doctor could know that you’re awake is if your blood pressure rises, which
it usually does when you wake up during surgery.
Once the doctor has seen that your blood pressure goes up, they will administer more anaesthetic
to knock you out for the rest of the procedure.
Some former patients have reported having post tramautic stress disorder following anesthesia
awareness.
Nightmares and flashbacks of the surgery could become a regular thing.
Anesthesia awareness is more likely to happen with patients who have multiple medical conditions.
Or maybe theres a situation where the right dose of anesthesia is actually dangerous,
so less is given to the patient.
Some examples of procedures like this are emergency c sections, some types of heart
surgery and surgery that’s required after a traumatic injury.
Of course, there are some people who wake up during surgery and don’t have post traumatic
stress disorder following it.
In fact, there are those who actually want to be awake during surgery.
I know, crazy, but it’s true.
Richard Muller, professor of physics at UC Berkely is one of them.
He asked to be awake during surgery after a mild heart attack, and the surgeon allowed
it.
He only applied local anaesthetic instead of general anaethetic, so Richard didn’t
feel pain, but he was able to watch the whole procedure.
There was a tube inserted into an artrery in his arm, that the doctors fed into his
heart, and then 4 spreaders were installed that kept his heart wide open.
After the surgery, Richard asked to go home, and because he only had local anaesthetic,
he was allowed.
Obviously we aren’t suggesting to try this, but I thought I would provide an example of
someone who was not traumatized by being awake during surgery.
It doesn’t always have to be a disturbing experience.
After all, anaesthesia has only been used for the last 200 years.
Before the 1840’s the only way to deal with the pain from a medical procedure was by gritting
their teeth.
For now, I’m charlotte dobre and you’ve been watching life’s biggest questions,
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