Screaming During Surgery

I am aware that a very widely held belief has been circulating for several years that many people are not being sufficiently anesthetized during surgery, causing excruciating pain that they remember.  I remember when I first heard this story floating around that it seemed a bit implausible, at least for the deep anesthesia used for major operations.  That kind of pain isnt just bad for the patient; it causes big problems for the surgeon as he as to work on a twitching, screaming body.

When the anesthesiologist was getting me ready for this surgery, he put on an EEG monitor that was supposed to check for signs of consciousness.  Being a bit cheeky, I asked him if showed that I was currently conscious, and he laughed.  I asked him, "Wouldnt the experience of pain, well before
consciousness, show up in increased heartbeat, respiration, blood pressure, as the body reacted to the pain?"  He admitted that it would, and he had little confidence that the EEG monitor for consciousness actually did any real good.  I have my suspicion that they use this device as a way of reassuring
those who have heard these horrifying stories the last few years. 

I dont find it implausible that because there have been some people undergoing surgical procedures with relatively mild forms of sedation who may have come out from under earlier than expected.  My anesthesiologist told Rhonda after they moved me into the recovery room that I was "narcotic naive."   This means that my past history of alcohol and drug abuse is so trivial that sniffing a wine cork would probably make me legally incapable of driving a car for a couple of hours.  My liver doesnt metabolize anesthetics and narcotics quickly, and I was deeply out for a long time.  People whose college major was Drugs of the Western Hemisphere and have not moved beyond that since graduation will likely come out from the doped up state more quickly.  Perhaps some people who have woke up fairly quickly in the recovery room (which is a scary place, although I cant quite remember any details) before the post-op staff has increased pain killers enough are, in this confused state, imagining that they were actually in surgery at the time.

Humans are dangerously suggestible, and the more that these stories of surgery on screaming, awake, conscious patients get passed around, the more likely it will produce nightmares like this.  And in many cases, it may discourage people getting surgery that they need.

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