Imagine lying down on the operating table after the doctors have administered some anaesthetics.
The surgeons assume that you have become unconscious and then they go ahead to cut you open with their surgical blades.
The major problem is that you are still completely awake but your muscles have been paralyzed and there is no way you could alert the surgeons.
You completely feel the pain as the surgical blades slice through you during the surgery. The experience must be horrible.
Well, let’s interview a Canadian woman named Donna Penner who experienced anesthesia awareness during her surgery in 2008.
Donna Penner was booked for a laparoscopy in 2008.
The surgeon administered some anesthetics and she “drifted off to sleep like she was supposed to”.
Moments later, she became aware of her environment and she assumed that the surgery was over.
It was the moment she heard the surgeon yell: “scalpel please”, that Donna Penner knew that her nightmare was just beginning.
She tried to signal for help and inform the doctors that she was completely awake but then it dawned on her that she couldn’t move at all.
Apparently, the general anaesthetic failed to work but the paralytic agent was working completely.
Her heart rate increased over the monitor and she even tried to move her toes, all to no avail.
She felt the surgeon as he made the first cut and she described the pain as “horrific”.
“I could not open my eyes. The first thing that I tried to do was to sit up, but I couldn’t move. It felt like somebody was sitting on me, weighing me down”.
Citation: BBC
After the operation, Donna Penner even had to see a therapist because she was traumatized completely.
FURTHER STUDIES:
Anaesthesia awareness is reported usually in 1 out of 19,000 surgical operations.
Patients cannot communicate because they are under the influence of muscle paralytics.
A clinical psychologist named Professor Michael Wang is currently making studies on the “isolated arm technique”, whereby one of the patient’s arms is allowed to freely move in order to alert the surgeons in the case of emergencies.
Donna Penner has since filed a legal complaint against the hospital where she was operated upon.
A 2007 film titled “AWAKE”, was made in regards to this medical scenario.
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