Anesthisia

Well, since I am a clutz and have to have surgery soon, what better topic to write about than risks of anesthisia! I just love psyching myself out and getting scared . Imagine going into surgery and thinking that in a couple of hours your going to wake up and be as good as new. Instead you are subjected to the most excrutiating pain in your life. Every year 20,000 to 40,000 of the 21 million people put under anesthisia wake up during surgery by mistake or by the doctors fear of giving the patient to high a dose.

The victim is paralyzed and has no way of of notifying or signaling the doctor that they can feel every slice, cut, and burn. They feel the worst pain they will ever feel in their lifetimes. Many patients then develope Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. They have nightmares, and develope serious psychological problems, and sometimes are to afraid to try surgery again. This causes problems for people who have serious illnesses that require surgery and also causes problems for paitents home lives because they are afraid of a reoccurence.

The Joint Commision on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, or JCAHO, issued an alert on anesthesia awareness to let doctors and paitents know the problem and to let them know they are trying to find a way of preventing future tramatic occurences with anesthesia. Patients have no way of letting the doctors or nurses know that they are aware, and JCAHO wants to find a way for patients to alert doctors if they are aware. One way they are investigating, is by hooking you up to a machine that monitors brain waves to detect when a patient might have become aware during surgery. The medical community wants to eliminate any chance of patients becoming helpless on the operating table and is doing there utmost to prevent it.

So if you can even try to imagine what it would be like to awaken during surgery, think about the ones who have and are suffering for it. Before you have surgery of any kind, prepare yourself by researching any problems that could happen to make sure you are making the best choice and that you understand the effects. It's your life, be aware.