I woke up during surgery, Have you?

Nurses General Nursing

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I was responding to another thread the other day and made mention of the fact that I woke up DURING my last surgery. I got to wondering if this had ever happened to anybody else, so I thought I'd ask.

It happened to me last year. I had a vague memory of waking up and seeing the overhead operating room lights, and being in excruciating pain. I thought I had imagined it, until two different anesthesioligists (teaching hospital) came up to my room, on separate occasions, and asked me if I had any memory of waking up during my surgery. I was shocked to find out that it actually did happen. :uhoh21:

I later requested a copy of both my hospital records and my surgeons records for my own file, and amazingly enough, it wasn't mentioned anywhere in my records. I wooooonder why...Hmmmmm? Of course, my surgeon downplayed the whole incident at my follow up appt.

Has anybody else ever had this experience before? If so, what do you remember, and did your surgeon own up to it?

i woke up in the middel of surgery :confused: and i remember feeling the cold tube passing through my esophegus :smiletea2: it was soOoOo cold and weired an i felt like couphing:eek:

2 separate procedures for the same thing I woke up (?) and vaguely remember hearing someone hollering. I then realized it was me! And then I was put under again. Another time I woke up with a sore, swollen chin and injured hand after a colonoscopy. All 3 times I was put under with Versed. Never again will I let them use Versed on me.

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.
I was responding to another thread the other day and made mention of the fact that I woke up DURING my last surgery. I got to wondering if this had ever happened to anybody else, so I thought I'd ask.

It happened to me last year. I had a vague memory of waking up and seeing the overhead operating room lights, and being in excruciating pain. I thought I had imagined it, until two different anesthesioligists (teaching hospital) came up to my room, on separate occasions, and asked me if I had any memory of waking up during my surgery. I was shocked to find out that it actually did happen. :uhoh21:

I later requested a copy of both my hospital records and my surgeons records for my own file, and amazingly enough, it wasn't mentioned anywhere in my records. I wooooonder why...Hmmmmm? Of course, my surgeon downplayed the whole incident at my follow up appt.

Has anybody else ever had this experience before? If so, what do you remember, and did your surgeon own up to it?

How could they record the incident if they didn't know it happened until you were seen post-op? Awareness during surgery is very rare, but it does happen. Usually, the patient hears noises in the room but does not feel pain. That is because you (usually) have enough narcotics and gas in your system to block pain impulses but have not received enough amnesiac medications. If you read the entire thread, you will discover the type of surgeries and patients most prone to recall. However, you were kept too "light" and should have had both more narcotics and amnesiacs in your system. Avoiding amnesia involves more art than merely providing pain relief and if you had a resident or new practitioner, you got assigned someone at the bottom of the learning curve. You may have given no visible signs of being aware (we don't have reliable monitors for awareness) and there's no reason for your surgeon to suspect that you experienced awareness unless you told him or her. It must be traumatic for you - sorry someone failed you.

I had a bad experience with Versed as well. I was aware, but curiously unable to move unless the nurses told me to. They proceeded to give me a general anesthetic that I had told them would be completely unacceptable for my particular surgery. We had no talk ahead of time like it says for "informed consent." Since I had said no to the general and accepted the risk for an axillery block, I thought the subject was finished. How was I to know that the CRNA had a drug like Versed? Anyway, I had to listen to his (CRNA) crude comments about me, and actually PARTICIPATE in the general anesthesia prep, even though I wanted to jump off the table and RUN AWAY AS FAST AS I COULD! It was so upsetting, that months later I can't get a good night's sleep, have PTSD and am afraid to take the Prozac my gp wants me to take, etc. This was caused by VERSED, let alone awakening during the procedure paralyzed! I wanted to be awake and aware, and watch the operation, not be given a zombie drug, have a tailpipe shoved down my throat and a given a general! Not to mention the staggering hospital bill for all the procedures involving anesthesia! I want to have the sloppily installed hardware taken back OUT of my arm, but am too terrified to go back to a hospital. I swear if the things weren't screwed in I would get a scalpel and slice them out myself! The OR nurses were the only people that were kind and considerate to me even though they all thought that I would have amnesia. Without them I would be in a mental hospital. Big thank you to all of you OR nurses who are sweet to patients even if they believe the patient won't remember.

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.
I had a bad experience with Versed as well. I was aware, but curiously unable to move unless the nurses told me to. They proceeded to give me a general anesthetic that I had told them would be completely unacceptable for my particular surgery. We had no talk ahead of time like it says for "informed consent." Since I had said no to the general and accepted the risk for an axillery block, I thought the subject was finished. How was I to know that the CRNA had a drug like Versed? Anyway, I had to listen to his (CRNA) crude comments about me, and actually PARTICIPATE in the general anesthesia prep, even though I wanted to jump off the table and RUN AWAY AS FAST AS I COULD! It was so upsetting, that months later I can't get a good night's sleep, have PTSD and am afraid to take the Prozac my gp wants me to take, etc. This was caused by VERSED, let alone awakening during the procedure paralyzed! I wanted to be awake and aware, and watch the operation, not be given a zombie drug, have a tailpipe shoved down my throat and a given a general! Not to mention the staggering hospital bill for all the procedures involving anesthesia! I want to have the sloppily installed hardware taken back OUT of my arm, but am too terrified to go back to a hospital. I swear if the things weren't screwed in I would get a scalpel and slice them out myself! The OR nurses were the only people that were kind and considerate to me even though they all thought that I would have amnesia. Without them I would be in a mental hospital. Big thank you to all of you OR nurses who are sweet to patients even if they believe the patient won't remember.

Neveragain: You need to obtain a copy of your anesthesia record because its impossible to know what happened (except for a sloppy anesthetic!). In case you ever have to have surgery again, anesthesia needs to know what failed with you before. It will also give you some power over something that still terrifies you. Do you think you could arouse up enough anger to contact the head of the department where you had your surgery and file a formal complaint with a cc. to the hospital administrator? You can never begin to heal from this until you find out the facts and take some action. I'm sure there's someone in that department that cares very much about what happened to you and wants to follow through. Please don't let this incident continue to fester. By the way, axillary blocks frequently are inadequate for surgery because of poor spread of the anesthetic or a rush by the team to get the case going. Versed is linked to catonia (short-lived) in patient who don't get general anesthesia. (I know you said you were intubated - this is just an FYI for others). Good luck to you. Feel free to pm me.

Specializes in midwifery, NICU.

:icon_rolleyes: Horror stories! I have never experienced this, thank him above!, as I've only had one GA in my life! this was for tooth extraction at the dentist when I was a child, but I went the opposite way! Obviously I was not aware, but they could not get me out of the anasthetic, I just would not wake up! Dentist all panicky, just about to call for ambulance, when I started to come around. i was sent home, with no follow up !! Now when I think about it, how negligent was his practice? It was a while ago, ( well, a wee bit longer than a while ago!:lol2: ) but makes me shudder all the same! Thankfully, never needed a GA since, but would make them aware of my past history.

My Mam blames it on me being a "lazy baby!" Born sleeping, couldn't be bothered to make the effort to wake up! still sleep at the drop of a hat, even sitting at the computer! ( or in the cinema, or worse in the lecture theatre at a Neonatal Perinatal Mortality meeting! Did I mention that SNORING LOUDLY is what I do as soon as my eyes close? Imagine the shame- Consultants etc, all turned towards the jet engine in the back row, the junior doctor having to wake you up???:zzzzz :imbar Know this is a bit off topic, but just shows , things can go the other way!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2007!!!

Specializes in Medical Surgical.

RNLou,

Wonderful information. I too am a pt that woke during my foot surgery, after reading your information I now understand why. I will say even though conscious sedation( based on your writing and the fact I had no ET tube) is what I was under the anesthesiologist was still surprised when I woke and asked if I could watch what they were doing...needless to say, they put me back out quick after that. The Dr. also told me that I would need to tell any future anesthesiologists what happened, which I have done, I have a had a few more surgeries, and that has never happened to me again.

Have a Great Day,

Bertina (SN second semester)

Again, let me stress, sedation is not general anesthesia. If you awoke from your sedation, you did not suffer from awareness under general anesthesia. You may have heard conversations in the room, you may recall sounds & lights. You did not suffer awareness under anesthesia.

Lou

Thanks for a very informative post Lou. I just had general anesthesia for surgery and I did not wake up at all.

I was totally out for the whole thing.

I kind of wish they had told me when they were putting me out though ... kinda freaky when you wake up like ... what just happened?

As for the Versed ... made me feel like I was drunk. All I remember was rambling on about meds or something ... then I was out.

Side effects were worse than I thought they would be ... hellava hangover. Took me a day to be able to eat anything.

:typing

I have been very fortunate to never wake up during surgery. After a recent orthopedic procedure four months ago, upon waking up, didn't even need supplemental oxygen after extubation. Fortunately, because I have never smoked, don't drink, etc. and I'm in excellent cardiovascular health, my body perfuses well. Though, I do remember when coming to in recovery, expressing my thoughts on how adorable my surgeon is. He was surprised I remembered our conversation when he checked on me the next day.

OMG!!! I hear ya! I actually had a nursing instructor last year mention something like this to us......she said people will always say stuff about hoping the surgeon is good , knows what their doing etc....and well ...what about the person putting you under..:idea: ..........funny :lol2:

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my mom always interviews and checks out the anethesiologist and insists no one also.

Specializes in critical care, PACU.
People need to understand that not all surgeries require patients to be asleep. Many surgeries are done while the patients are completely awake. People have a misconception that they are unintentionally awake when they have a spinal or a regional anesthesia the fact is you are suppose to be. The main point is you should not be in a lot of pain. As far as recall emergency C-sections and Cardiac surgeries have the highest recall rates.

This is true. My boyfriends father was getting more stents put into an artery and then the surgeon nicked another artery. He specifically remembers hearing the md say "oh ****" and was awake while they tried to repair things.

I never had that happen to me but im sorry to hear that about your surgery

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