Awake During Surgery: Anaesthesia Awareness

General anesthesia is a combination of intravenous drugs and inhaled gasses that are introduced to your body before a surgical procedure to put you in temporary unconsciousness. But have you ever thought about what might happen if the anesthesia does not work?

Picture this: you are about to into surgery and your aesthetician tells you that you will begin to drift off to sleep soon. You feel your body go limp, and your eyes close. But, you do not fall asleep like you are supposed to. Your eyes may be closed but you can still clearly see the darkness behind your eyelids, hear the doctor and nurses talk, smell the medicinal scent of your room and feel the nurses nudge against the bed you are laying on. But you cannot move. You are conscious, but your body is paralyzed.

The preface above explains a severe case of a condition called anesthesia awareness. It is a rather rare occurrence and happens to only 0.1% of patients that are given general anesthesia. The intensity of the awareness varies from case to case. Some patients recall being conscious for only parts of their surgery and have felt pressure but little or no pain and other patients recall being conscious for the entire duration of the surgery and suffering an excruciating about of pain.

There are several causes behind this condition.

Type of Patient

• Age: Young adults are more prone to this condition than children or teens.
• Gender: Females are more likely to be conscious than males.
• Weight: Obese individuals are more likely to wake up.

Patient’s Condition before Surgery

• A history of suffering from the condition.
• Any medication the patient may be taking.
• Fear of anesthesia awareness prior to the surgery.
• History of drug or alcohol abuse.

Type of Surgery

• Emergency surgeries.
• C-sections: This is because anestheticians use a milder doe compared to other surgeries.

Aestheticians Expertise and Available Technology

• Anestheticians that are early in their training.
• Inadequate dosage.
• Failure, misuse or lack of the necessary equipment.

The repercussions of this condition may include leaving the patient mentally disturbed. The patient may develop PTSD and depression. The victims of this condition that recall the pain, noise, smell and taste can undergo months of suffering from nightmares, flashbacks, suicidal thoughts and may require months of therapy before they can come to terms with what they have gone through.

Watch this bone-chilling, detailed description of a victim’s experience with anesthesia awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aax2iPkChmQ to learn more about the condition, through a first-person account.

So, make sure you or anyone you know is in the healthiest physical state and calmest mental state before going into surgery. And make sure you familiarize yourself with your anesthetician and stay well-informed about the machinery they will be using to monitor your vitals and brain activity while you are put under anesthesia.

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