{"id":10344,"date":"2022-06-21T02:59:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T02:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/in\/?post_type=product&p=10344"},"modified":"2022-06-21T02:59:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T02:59:10","slug":"this-is-what-its-like-waking-up-during-surgery","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/in\/this-is-what-its-like-waking-up-during-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"This is what it\u2019s like waking up during surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

General anaesthetic is supposed to make surgery painless. But now there\u2019s evidence that one person in 20 may be awake when doctors think they\u2019re under.<\/h4>\n
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It can be the smallest event that triggers Donna Penner\u2019s traumatic memories of an operation from more than ten years ago.<\/p>\n

One day, for instance, she was waiting in the car as her daughter ran an errand, and realised that she was trapped inside. What might once have been a frustrating inconvenience sent her into a panic attack. \u201cI started screaming. I was flailing my arms, I was crying,\u201d she says. \u201cIt just left me so shaken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the wrong clothing can make her anxiety worse. \u201cAnything that\u2019s tight around my neck is out of the question because it makes me feel like I\u2019m suffocating,\u201d says Donna, a 55-year-old from Altona in Manitoba, Canada.<\/p>\n

Donna would not be like this if it were not for a small medical procedure that she had before her 45th birthday. She was working in the accountancy department of a local trucking company and had just celebrated the wedding of one of her daughters. But she had been having severe bleeding and pain during her period, and her family physician had suggested that they investigate the causes with exploratory surgery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It should have been a routine procedure, but, for reasons that are far from clear, the general anaesthetic failed. Rather than lying in peaceful oblivion, she woke up just before the surgeon made the first cut into her abdomen. With her body still paralysed by the anaesthetic drugs, she was unable to signal that anything was wrong.<\/p>\n

So she remained frozen and helpless on the operating table as the surgeon probed her body, while she experienced indescribable agony. \u201cI thought, \u2018This is it, this is how I\u2019m going to die, right here on the table, and my family will never know what my last few hours were like because no one\u2019s even noticing what\u2019s going on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The lingering trauma can resurface with the slightest trigger, and still causes her to have \u201ctwo or three nightmares each night\u201d. Having been put on medical leave from her job, she has lost her independence. She suspects that she will never fully escape the effects of that day more than a decade ago. \u201cIt\u2019s a life sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/h4>\n