I've heard similar stories of people waking up during surgery but are unable to move or otherwise show they're conscious. It sounds like a real nightmare.

I get faint at the thought of needles, so I like to think that if this happened to me, I'd pass out again rather quickly at the thought of people rooting around in my chest.

So, did he wake up and hear that his wife was trying to kill him?

Were they just not paying attention to his vital signs? As the article stated, direct communication from the patient shouldn't even be necessary in order to put them back to sleep in case of mid-surgery awakenings. Your heart rate and blood pressure soar when you're under that kind of stress.

Maybe they had a bunch of drugs pumped into the patient to artificially control those systems as well.

I wake up before I wake up from anesthesia. But then again, I can sleep with my eyes open and carry on conversations when I'm asleep.

Mom took me for my last wisdom tooth extraction where I went under. I don't remember events afterwards until we were already in the car and on the way home. But she tells me it was like I hopped off the bed and exclaimed I was ready to go home and started walking out the door on my own power.

Similar for my hernia. But the muscle pain thing kept me in check.

Difference between me and this guy is I'm not aware of what's going on. It's more like my brain goes on autopilot.

Cythraul: Were they just not paying attention to his vital signs? As the article stated, direct communication from the patient shouldn't even be necessary in order to put them back to sleep in case of mid-surgery awakenings. Your heart rate and blood pressure soar when you're under that kind of stress.

Maybe they had a bunch of drugs pumped into the patient to artificially control those systems as well.

I'd be curious to hear the doctor's side. If the guy is in there for a collapsed lung it sounds like some kind of trauma occurred prior to the surgery. Even coming awake his vitals might not have spiked that much since they may have been low to start with.

I've never woken up like that under surgery, though I have had a case of sleep paralysis where I "woke up" but i couldn't move, speak, or do anything else for a good 30 minutes. It was a rather disturbing sensation. I can only imagine how bad this guy was in his head. Albeit, waking up during autopsy is not slightly higher in my fears.

Maybe it was an out of body experience?

/please rate

Yep.. that happened to me when I was 5 and had a leg operation done. Told my mom the music that was playing, and all the conversation going on. His face went pure white when my mom told him what happened

Hmmm... I wonder if being conscious with people sticking their hands inside your chest would hurt at all...

But he's alive, so he has that going for him.

In the U.S. they'll put in a chest tube in the ER under conscious sedation if they have to.

Delirium Cordia by Fantômas is a concept album about the idea of surgery without anesthesia. Disturbing stuff but a good listen.

Diogenes: I wake up before I wake up from anesthesia. But then again, I can sleep with my eyes open and carry on conversations when I'm asleep.

Mom took me for my last wisdom tooth extraction where I went under. I don't remember events afterwards until we were already in the car and on the way home. But she tells me it was like I hopped off the bed and exclaimed I was ready to go home and started walking out the door on my own power.

Similar for my hernia. But the muscle pain thing kept me in check.

Difference between me and this guy is I'm not aware of what's going on. It's more like my brain goes on autopilot.

That's how I am too. I can carry on full conversations while asleep without any memory of it at all. Don't trust me with any secrets.

I wake up before I wake up from anesthesia. But then again, I can sleep with my eyes open and carry on conversations when I'm asleep.

Mom took me for my last wisdom tooth extraction where I went under. I don't remember events afterwards until we were already in the car and on the way home. But she tells me it was like I hopped off the bed and exclaimed I was ready to go home and started walking out the door on my own power.

Similar for my hernia. But the muscle pain thing kept me in check.

Difference between me and this guy is I'm not aware of what's going on. It's more like my brain goes on autopilot.

I woke up during my wisdom tooth surgery, but I couldn't feel anything. I just heard the drills and the cracking and slurking sound as they yanked my teeth out. I made a noise, and everybody stopped...the oral surgeon said, "[Stabone33], are you awake?" and I was thinking, I don't think so. So I said "uh unh". The surgeon said, "does it hurt?" and I said, "uh unh." He said, "Okay, go back to sleep." And I did.

But my brain does go on autopilot when I cross some drunk threshold. Many a time have I just set down my drink and walked home, once in mid-sentence.

Diogenes: I wake up before I wake up from anesthesia. But then again, I can sleep with my eyes open and carry on conversations when I'm asleep.

Mom took me for my last wisdom tooth extraction where I went under. I don't remember events afterwards until we were already in the car and on the way home. But she tells me it was like I hopped off the bed and exclaimed I was ready to go home and started walking out the door on my own power.

Similar for my hernia. But the muscle pain thing kept me in check.

Difference between me and this guy is I'm not aware of what's going on. It's more like my brain goes on autopilot.

I had this happen after my back surgery. When I really woke up, I was surprised to be in restraints. I asked about that, and the doc told me that I'd gotten out of bed and tried to leave.

Ack, Nightmaremitter! Way to trigger one of my personal phobias on this bright and sunny Monday morning.

The other one is, what if I wake up during surgery but because of the amnesia meds, don't remember it? What if this happens all the time? What if you had to have surgery knowing you would feel every cut and stitch but just wouldn't remember?

**shudder**

A friend of mine knew a guy who had an extreme resistance to any sort of anesthetics. The guy even had a hard time getting drunk, because it would wear off so quickly.

He goes into surgery, they dope him up with continual doses until he finally goes to sleep. This was reportedly a huge amount of medicine that would nearly kill most folks. Half-way through the surgery, the guy wakes up, opens his eyes, looks around briefly at his surroundings, and says, more of a thought-out statement than a reaction, "Ow."

The doctors quickly up his dosage and put him back to sleep.

I woke up during surgery on my leg/ankle. I just remember holding up my hand and asking what the glowing red sensor thing on my finger was. Then one of the doctors began to explain its purpose while giving me another dose of the sleepytime stuff. Powerful shiat that stuff is.

cgraves67: Diogenes: I wake up before I wake up from anesthesia. But then again, I can sleep with my eyes open and carry on conversations when I'm asleep.

Mom took me for my last wisdom tooth extraction where I went under. I don't remember events afterwards until we were already in the car and on the way home. But she tells me it was like I hopped off the bed and exclaimed I was ready to go home and started walking out the door on my own power.

Similar for my hernia. But the muscle pain thing kept me in check.

Difference between me and this guy is I'm not aware of what's going on. It's more like my brain goes on autopilot.

That's how I am too. I can carry on full conversations while asleep without any memory of it at all. Don't trust me with any secrets.

Do your kids always seem to figure out what they're getting for Christmas?

BurnShrike: I've heard similar stories of people waking up during surgery but are unable to move or otherwise show they're conscious. It sounds like a real nightmare.

I think that during surgery you're given paralytic drugs that are separate from the ones that actually put you to sleep, and if the latter wears off you can wake up but be utterly paralyzed due to the effect of the former. I can't even imagine what that must be like.

dletter: So, did he wake up and hear that his wife was trying to kill him?

Why would anyone who wasn't me have seen that terrible terrible movie...

I have twice had upper endoscopies which require heavy sedation. The first time I woke up mid way through with no clue what was happening. I remember trying to move my arms to pull out the tube and they felt like jelly, not even sure I was moving them. The doctor was yelling at the anesthesiologist that I was waking up and to get me back under. That sucked. For the second one I got three rounds of sedation meds, each one followed by benadryl because I didn't fall asleep within 10-20 minutes after each. Finally the doc came in and said that they couldn't safely be sure I could handle more drugs. The option: go through it awake. That sucked even more.

Point: going through procedures awake is horrible. This guy went through surgery conscience. I don't even want to begin to think about how much worse that must be.

overmortal: He goes into surgery, they dope him up with continual doses until he finally goes to sleep. This was reportedly a huge amount of medicine that would nearly kill most folks. Half-way through the surgery, the guy wakes up, opens his eyes, looks around briefly at his surroundings, and says, more of a thought-out statement than a reaction, "Ow."

The proctologist who operated on my Dad for some polyps several years ago said they had to give him enough anesthesia to drop an elephant before his asshole would unclench.

Skr: I have had a case of sleep paralysis where I "woke up" but i couldn't move, speak, or do anything else for a good 30 minutes.

Terrifying is a better word for it.

Ack, Nightmaremitter! Way to trigger one of my personal phobias on this bright and sunny Monday morning.

The other one is, what if I wake up during surgery but because of the amnesia meds, don't remember it? What if this happens all the time? What if you had to have surgery knowing you would feel every cut and stitch but just wouldn't remember?

**shudder**

What if that's already happened to you? And what if the "doctors" were actually making that kind of pr0n that creeps you out...and you're the star?

Stabone33: Ack, Nightmaremitter! Way to trigger one of my personal phobias on this bright and sunny Monday morning.

The other one is, what if I wake up during surgery but because of the amnesia meds, don't remember it? What if this happens all the time? What if you had to have surgery knowing you would feel every cut and stitch but just wouldn't remember?

**shudder**

What if that's already happened to you? And what if the "doctors" were actually making that kind of pr0n that creeps you out...and you're the star?

Oh ew.

I came to (but not all the way) during my wisdom teeth extraction. Fortunately they used local anesthetic as well so I didn't feel any pain, but I could hear what they we were doing to my jaw.

Just remember, you're being fixed, not tortured. Nothing makes pain worse like panic.

In response to some of the tooth extraction comments, they often give you sedatives when they pull teeth (and also for colonoscopies and other similar procedures.) Sedatives don't knock you out on the same level as general anesthetics, but they do make you forget what happened. So even though you don't remember your tooth being pulled, you were probably semi-conscious. General anesthetics completely knock you out, but they don't affect your memory as much once you're conscious again.

cretinbob: But he's alive, so he has that going for him.

In the U.S. they'll put in a chest tube in the ER under conscious sedation if they have to.

Or, if you're a tough cookie like David Petraeus, they skip the sedation part.

I woke up during one of my carpal tunnel surgeries (ended up having to get both hands done). I remember feeling tugging in my hand, and said something like "wow, I can feel that". The doctor asked me if it hurt, and I said no, I just felt some pulling. She said it would be over soon, and I went back to sleep.

I didn't wake up when I had my sigmoid colon removed (DIverticulosis. Caused several hospitalizations when they got inflamed and caused Diverticulitis. Believe me, you do not want this... To say it was painful is an understatement.), thankfully. The biggest issue was that the pain med pump (I had a button I could press but it wouldn't work if less than 10 minutes had passed since the last dose) didn't seem to work. Several nurses came in and checked it, and they didn't find anything wrong. They all said it was just beacuse I was just out of surgery. I still had a hard time believing that, so they finally sent someone else to check. He looked at the entire path of tubing, and found a plastic clip partially blocking the IV in my hand. He fixed it, and all of a sudden the Dalotted started actually working...

xip_80: Sedatives don't knock you out on the same level as general anesthetics, but they do make you forget what happened. So even though you don't remember your tooth being pulled, you were probably semi-conscious.

Yeah, when I had a colonoscopy (to check for polyps because of my father's history) the nurse said that while I was sedated I probably wouldn't remember anything, but if I wanted to sing or tell jokes or tell stories I could. Evidently singing is something that people undergoing colonoscopies under sedation do quite a bit.

Dunno if I did any of those things, my only flash of memory of the time includes being surprised at finding eggshells in the tract.

I woke up during surgery on my 4 impacted wisdom teeth - only for about 2 minutes though. Same thing - couldn't move, but couldn't feel pain either.

What pissed me off is that the Doc was very dismissive and told me I was just high from the anesthetic, until I asked him who the redhead female doctor/resident watching was (who wasn't there when I went down or woke up).

I woke up once in the middle of a complex wisdom tooth extraction. I remember having what I thought was a dream of having my tooth cut into segments with a small circular saw. It lasted only a few seconds, and I felt panicked, but the next thing I knew I came to in the recovery room. It was later that day that I figured I had woken up (sorta) during dental surgery.

I didn't feel any pain, and I wasn't fully aware. It was like being in a fuzzy, bad dream.

I had this happen during a particularly complicated dental surgery. They were aware that I was awake, but I had come out of the sedation and they didnt feel comfortable dosing me higher for whatever reason, so I just kind of layed there in a half zombie state, felt every bit of them cutting up the teeth/bone, and taking it out in chunks, etc.

With that said, it really wasnt that big of a deal. shiat had to get done one way or another, I mean they're fixing you man... no need to get angry at people trying to help you.

Wow at the above posts all having the same experience, lol

Cybernetic: cgraves67: Diogenes: I wake up before I wake up from anesthesia. But then again, I can sleep with my eyes open and carry on conversations when I'm asleep.

Mom took me for my last wisdom tooth extraction where I went under. I don't remember events afterwards until we were already in the car and on the way home. But she tells me it was like I hopped off the bed and exclaimed I was ready to go home and started walking out the door on my own power.

Similar for my hernia. But the muscle pain thing kept me in check.

Difference between me and this guy is I'm not aware of what's going on. It's more like my brain goes on autopilot.

That's how I am too. I can carry on full conversations while asleep without any memory of it at all. Don't trust me with any secrets.

Do your kids always seem to figure out what they're getting for Christmas?

My boy isn't old enough for that yet, but my wife knows about it. I can't do anything that she would disapprove of because sleep is truth serum for me.

indylaw: I woke up once in the middle of a complex wisdom tooth extraction. I remember having what I thought was a dream of having my tooth cut into segments with a small circular saw. It lasted only a few seconds, and I felt panicked, but the next thing I knew I came to in the recovery room. It was later that day that I figured I had woken up (sorta) during dental surgery.

I didn't feel any pain, and I wasn't fully aware. It was like being in a fuzzy, bad dream.

My wife had a patient wake up on her during that. Guy muttered something about "Just finish it, I always wake during these things" while my wife was yelling for him to be put back under. Later turns out this is the third time during a surgery that guy woke up. As my wife said "Well I was a relieved because I figured that meant I was off the hook for malpractice, but I still wanted to scream at him 'Remember when I asked you all those questions during the previous appointments, you did not mention you wake up during surgery why?"!

Gough: cretinbob: But he's alive, so he has that going for him.

In the U.S. they'll put in a chest tube in the ER under conscious sedation if they have to.

Or, if you're a tough cookie like David Petraeus, they skip the sedation part.

Yes, I've seen that done as well

Diogenes: I wake up before I wake up from anesthesia. But then again, I can sleep with my eyes open and carry on conversations when I'm asleep.

Mom took me for my last wisdom tooth extraction where I went under. I don't remember events afterwards until we were already in the car and on the way home. But she tells me it was like I hopped off the bed and exclaimed I was ready to go home and started walking out the door on my own power.

Similar for my hernia. But the muscle pain thing kept me in check.

Difference between me and this guy is I'm not aware of what's going on. It's more like my brain goes on autopilot.

Haven't had any issues with anasthetics yet (haven't had anything done but my wisdom teeth extracted) but I apparently have changed quite a multitude of diapers, quieted children many times, and carried on full seemingly alert conversations completely asleep. And apparently my "sleep" personality is a bit of an asswhole too, I have been told I can be exceedingly mean. To be fair, the stuff I have been told I said is shockingly blunt and they are things I would never have said if conscious.

Jim DiGriz:

That's Dilaudid, as I learned from the closed captions on "Drugstore Cowboy".

ha-ha-guy: Cythraul: Were they just not paying attention to his vital signs? As the article stated, direct communication from the patient shouldn't even be necessary in order to put them back to sleep in case of mid-surgery awakenings. Your heart rate and blood pressure soar when you're under that kind of stress.

Maybe they had a bunch of drugs pumped into the patient to artificially control those systems as well.

I'd be curious to hear the doctor's side. If the guy is in there for a collapsed lung it sounds like some kind of trauma occurred prior to the surgery. Even coming awake his vitals might not have spiked that much since they may have been low to start with.

Since he's 22 and the article didn't mention trauma from an accident, I'm guess he had spontaneous pneumothorax, which is where the lung randomly springs a leak in tall, thin guys in their early 20's. I had it happen to me at 21, and I know of 4 other guys who look like me who had it happen around that age. I did not wake up during the surgery like this guy but I did have a chest-tube hooked to a vacuum (pleurevac) for 2 weeks before the damn lung finally stopped leaking.

RembrandtQEinstein: dletter: So, did he wake up and hear that his wife was trying to kill him?

Why would anyone who wasn't me have seen that terrible terrible movie...

Sadly, I saw it too. I kept thinking it was going to cross the line into so-bad-it's-actually-entertaining realm (a la Showgirls). By the time I realized that, no, it was just farking bad, i had invested too much time into it. I was going to finish that piece of shiate movie if it killed me.

/it was painful
//like being awake during surgery

What, no socialized medicine wharrgarbl? Fine, I'll step in:

Is anyone surprised this happened under socialism? The anesthetic budget probably got cut to pay inflated union wages for cleaning toilets or counting bricks. He's lucky they bothered putting him under - when Obamunism really kicks in they'll just hit you up with paralytics and start cutting.

...ok, enough derp, that was fun.

Add me to the CanaestheticSB crew; had a short hallucinatory moment during my wisdom tooth extraction, during which I could see a very exaggerated version of the dentist reaching from a far distance to pull a tooth chunk out. It was almost like something out of The Wall. No pain despite feeling the tug, went back under, came up, went home, got Tylenol 3s.

Thankfully, the general anaesthetic worked perfectly during the cystoscopy I underwent at 13...

I was completely conscious when the doctors treated my collapsed lung after my car accident. But I was gassed, and already delirious from nearly suffocating and going through the pain of the accident, so I can't say I felt much. All they really did was poke a hole in my side and stick a tube through, which kind of felt like being punched in the ribs.

I actually had this happen once, though I wasn't under general anesthesia. I was put under with pentathol for a procedure that was only supposed to take about 20 minutes. Well, they had a problem and it actually took about an hour and a half. At some point, the pentathol began to wear off and I started waking. THere was some pain and it was very, very strange. I heard the doc say something about a bit more pentathol, but he sounded like he was in another room. Then nighty-night again.

I can't imagine how horrible it must be to awaken during general anesthesia, since there are two components: sedation and paralyzing the patient. You cannot move, so unless the anesthesiologist is paying close attention, a patient can become terrified during a major procedure.

I've woken up during surgery but I wasn't under general anesthetic.

I remember commenting on the Dr's choice of music in the ER, I said something like "Sweet, Clapton." (I'm fairly certain Crossroads was playing) and then "Hey, am I supposed to be awake right now?"...

They laughed, said "No." and knocked me back out.

/CSB

My wife had a three hour c section and the drugs wore off after the first half hour. Creepy

After I had my first knee surgery, I was in the surgeon's office for the follow-up. He was recounting the procedure, and said: "When I did this, do you remember?" I said "No". He said, "Well, you had a lot to say about it at the time!" Still wondering what I said, but I bet it wasn't PG13.

I remember my wisdom tooth extraction like this: the hygenist pressing down on my forehead with both hands and her full body weight, and the dentist with his foot up on the table pulling with a set of those vise-grip-style locking pliers to get out my upper right tooth. I remember thinking that I'm glad to be so messed up or this would probably suck rocks.

Breathe deep the gathering gloom
Watch lights fade from every room...
Etc.

Marshall Willenholly: Since he's 22 and the article didn't mention trauma from an accident, I'm guess he had spontaneous pneumothorax, which is where the lung randomly springs a leak in tall, thin guys in their early 20's. I had it happen to me at 21, and I know of 4 other guys who look like me who had it happen around that age. I did not wake up during the surgery like this guy but I did have a chest-tube hooked to a vacuum (pleurevac) for 2 weeks before the damn lung finally stopped leaking.

... huh. I did not know that.

... Given that I'm approximately 6'1" and weigh around 140lbs, that's prooobaabbllly something I should watch out for.