Surgery while awake: patient's ordeal (Poesque nightmare)

AAP ^ | 5/9/03 | Judy Skatssoon

[Mark Felton]

A NEW Zealand doctor has undergone surgery paralysed and awake as the result of an anaesthetic pump failure, a medical journal has reported.

GP K J Rowan experienced complete awareness and full sensation of pain.

She gave an account of her ordeal in the journal Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, published by the Australian Society of Anaesthetists.

Dr Rowan, from Auckland, had just been administered anaesthetic for an operation on her gallbladder.

She began to feel lightheaded, then suddenly realised she couldn't breathe.

"I was totally alert," she wrote.

"I could not feel my chest rising and I had no sensation of air moving in or out.

"I attempted to scream but only a short yell came out and then I could no longer make a sound."

Dr Rowan said she heard someone ask what was wrong but she couldn't answer.

"I went into a state of panic ... I realised that I was not supposed to be awake at this stage and that the anaesthetist and other medical staff ... did not know."

Dr Rowan felt the tube going down her throat and iodine being sponged onto her abdomen.

Her face was covered and she heard the surgeon ask if he should start surgery.

"I felt the first incision ... and the pressure of probes pushing around my upper abdomen. The pain went on and on."

Dr Rowan said she believed the problem was finally recognised after about 30 minutes and she was put to sleep.

For weeks after the incident Dr Rowan said she was fearful and anxious, especially when she lay on her back and closed her eyes.

AAP

[Mark17]

GP K J Rowan experienced complete awareness and full sensation of pain.

I have heard of this happening. If it is true, what an odeal it must have been.

[Jay D. Dyson]

I have heard of this happening. If it is true, what an odeal it must have been.

Indeed. There are few things that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. That ordeal is one of them.

When I was in my teens, I had to have emergency dental surgery done on my four lower incisors following blunt force head trauma (my cranium took the brunt of it, but my lower teeth were sheared off). Because of the head trauma, they couldn't give me any anesthetic.

I later learned that the pain I experienced was called "bright pain."

Bright? More like blinding.

-Jay

[boris]

If your doctor told you that a new gas had been invented for 'anasthesia' that had the following properties:

(1) You would feel everything that happened during the surgery;
(2) You would have total amnesia about the suffering once you 'woke up' after surgery.

Would you volunteer to use this gas?

Most people would not; however, as Daniel Dennet has pointed out, in face we do not know how many anasthetic gases work--and it is entirely possible that precisely this is happening in some cases.

After all, if you don't remember the pain--what's the big deal?

Long ago, curare was thought to be an anasthetic. Patients recovering from surgery reported full sensations--but the doctors did not believe them, until one doctor volunteered for 'minor' surgery under curare. He reported that he had felt all sensations.

My understanding is that--today--curare is still used as an adjunct to anasthesia--but only because it paralyzes the patient and makes operating easier...

--Boris

[buffyt]

I have heard of this. It is scary. Rare but true.

[Mark Felton]

Of course the doctors do have clues when the anasthetic is not working. The autonomic responses will still be active. There is much, much more blood flow to the area being traumatized; increased heart rate; increased blood pressure (paroxysmal and steady).

[Rasputin_TheMadMonk]

A simple way to prevent this from happening is to monitor neural activity. Even if you can't move, pain will register on an EEG.

I tend to avoid doctors on the basis of anyone who makes their living from pain and suffering is a ghoul. Doctors, lawyers and physical therapists all give me the willies......

[wanderin]

I have heard of this happening.

This happened to me years ago during reconstructive surgery on both sides of my jaw. It was not pleasant. I was totally unable to convey to them in any manner that I was awake.

My surgeon did not believe me when I first told him the next day. His face was a sight as I repeated the conversations he had with others while he operated on me.

[HiTech RedNeck]

How can the anesthesiologist be this stupid... obviously no EEG. Sounds like they didn't even have a clue until they started to wonder why the anesthetic pump wasn't using up the drug. *DOH*

[rmlew]

I hope you got a discount!

[wanderin]

I hope you got a discount!

LOL. Good one. No discount. This was 29 years ago, a week before my 21st birthday. I was so grateful to get out of there alive, I did not even bother to sign their discharge papers in my haste. In no way could a lawyer have caught up with me to hand me a business card.

[Mark17]

His face was a sight as I repeated the conversations he had with others while he operated on me.

Ouch. What an awful thing. I had oral surgery 4 years ago. The surgeon placed pins in my jaw for dental implants, but everything worked fine. I was out like a light, and did not remember anything till I woke up.

[airedale]

It happens. The Straight Dope has a good write up on this along with some other horror stories at: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990226.html The following article describes "recall" effects under anesthetic. It talks bout the modern agents being very good at blocking recall. It's at: http://www.capanes.com/Complications/Awareness.htm

This only happens every so often. The best search string I found was anesthesia recall when I used Google

[NewRomeTacitus]

Easy to forget how much aquired knowledge there is in the collective Free Repuplic brain trust. Doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs and temp workers in one equal forum.
Wished to add that I read about a case of hypnotic anesthesia were the patient also felt everything during an abdominal procedure yet was unable to respond. That person came out okay except for the experience.
It seems that the brain still posesses mysteries science has yet to close in on. Everyone who has seen someone die has experienced the phenomenon where the person just wasn't "there" after expiring. Yet many who were successfully resuscitated often maintain that they were aware of the dying experience and the comments of the staff long after heart failure rendered them legally deceased.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Not even novocaine? Ouch.

[em2vn]

How were you able to speak the day after the surgery?

[ntnychik]

Very nearly happened to me. I was given a spinal for a caesarian section. It didn't take and I had to argue with the doctor that I could feel everything. He stabbed me in the sole of the foot with the scalpel to prove I was wrong. Then he believed me--in the nick of time. A close friend of mine had the same thing happen but her doctor didn't believe her and proceeded with the caesarian. She felt everything and was totally traumatized.

[Monty22]

Stiraghtdope did a story awhile ago about this. I had hoped we'd be able to stop it. Literally sounds like hell on earth.

[BJungNan]

Try getting a venogram. Wide awake with a tube being sent up through your viens. You even get to watch on the procedure on the monitor. Facinating.

[LaineyDee]

After all, if you don't remember the pain--what's the big deal?

Some may be able to endure it...depending on the procedure....but some may not. I would say death from shock.....would be a roll of the dice in this situation.

I woke up during a major surgical procedure, several years ago. All I remember... is seeing a bright light, looking up and seeing the anesthesiologist looking back at me. He said, "oops".......and out I went again. Oh yeah...there was rock music playing. *chuckle* I didn't feel a thing, tho.