DOCTORS WAKING UP TO ANESTHESIA'S LIMITS SURGERY PATIENTS TRAUMATIZED WHEN DRUGS FADE EARLY CHICAGOLAND FINAL Edition

After doctors anesthetized the Reston, Va., resident, she woke up 40 minutes later and saw the operating room's bright light. She heard the beat of disco music playing on the radio. Then she heard the surgeon telling the resident that he needed to cut deeper into her eye cavity. "I was lit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChicago tribune (1963)
Main Author Cole, Patrick
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago, Ill Tribune Publishing Company, LLC 28.02.1999
Subjects
Anesthesia
Health hazards
Post traumatic stress disorder
Side effects
Surgery
NEW YORK
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Summary:After doctors anesthetized the Reston, Va., resident, she woke up 40 minutes later and saw the operating room's bright light. She heard the beat of disco music playing on the radio. Then she heard the surgeon telling the resident that he needed to cut deeper into her eye cavity. "I was literally awake as I am now," said the distraught (Carol) Weihrer as she recounted the surgery. "Then they started tugging on my eye. I wanted to tell them I was awake, so I said to myself, `Let's try moving a toe; let's try a hand.' " It is called "awareness," or waking up in surgery. While firm statistics are hard to come by, of the 20 million people who underwent major surgery last year, an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 woke up, said Dr. Peter Sebel, a professor of anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. The patients can usually see, feel, hear and sometimes smell everything around them--but they cannot do anything to let doctors know that they are awake.
ISSN:1085-6706