What If You Woke Up During Surgery

It’s normal to feel nervous if you’re about to undergo an operation. Unfortunately, numerous urban legends exist about how things can go wrong during surgery. Such myths don’t have any grounds, but they can escalate your anxiety. One such fear makes people wonder what will happen if they wake up when an operation is in progress.

People usually receive general anesthesia before major surgery. It relaxes muscles and puts patients to sleep. Therefore, nobody feels the pain of the operation. Waking up during surgery is called anesthesia awareness, and it is an extremely rare occurrence. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists, only one person out of 10,000 wakes up from general anesthesia before an operation is finished. And if we speak about high-risk surgeries, this number drops to one in 40,000 patients.

TIMESTAMPS:
How does it feel during anesthesia awareness? 1:25
Who is at a higher risk of anesthesia awareness? 3:01
What types of surgeries may raise the risk of awareness? 3:45
How can you lower the risk of waking up during an operation? 4:09
Can you reveal all your secrets under anesthesia? 4:49
Can you behave aggressively? 5:37
Will you have nightmares after anesthesia is administered? 6:38
Will you get addicted to opioids after anesthesia? 7:29
Will you see the “afterworld” under anesthesia? 8:35

#anesthesiaawareness #wakingupduringsurgery

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SUMMARY:
– People usually receive general anesthesia before major surgery. It relaxes muscles and puts patients to sleep. Therefore, nobody feels the pain of the operation.
– Waking up during surgery doesn’t mean excruciating pain combined with paralysis. In a few reported cases of anesthesia awareness, patients could recognize that something was happening around them.
– The chances of waking up during surgery are minuscule. Your anesthesiologist is present throughout the whole procedure, and if something unusual happens, they will take care of this unexpected development.
– Particular types of surgeries may raise the risk of awareness. Such surgeries are mostly emergency operations after a serious injury, emergency C-sections, and some types of heart surgery.
– Many people are worried that when they’re receiving anesthesia, they will blurt out things they may regret later. This fear has no grounds. Patients do feel more relaxed under anesthetic, but they don’t reveal anything unusual.
– Diethyl ether not only made patients aggressive but also evoked severe nausea and vomiting. That’s why it was replaced with improved forms of anesthetics as soon as they were developed.
– Most people describe being under anesthesia as a blackout. They report falling asleep and then waking up — seemingly a couple of minutes later. This means that even if they were dreaming, they don’t remember anything at all.
– Researchers from the University of Michigan figured out that some surgeons prescribe a greater allowance of medication than some patients end up using.
– Some people believe that they will be able to see the “afterworld” when they are under anesthesia, just like people who have experienced clinical death. But the notions of being under anesthesia and experiencing clinical death are as far from each other as they can be.