The Pros And Cons Of Nurse Anesthesia

The anxiety of getting surgery has been on your mind all week. But after meeting with your doctor, you are reminded that the three-hour long procedure is routine and you have nothing to worry about. You know the apprehension and uneasiness you feel over the the surgery is completely normal, and you continue to reassure yourself that you will be in the safest of hands. The doctors are here to make you better, right? As you are rolled into the operating room, the sedatives are starting to take effect. As you lose feeling in your body, your eyelids float shut. “Count back from 10,” you hear the nurse instruct you, but something is wrong. As you count down the numbers, you are still awake. Wide awake. As the doctors begin to prep you for the surgery, you are completely and fully aware. You can feel the cool operating table against your back and the firm hands of the doctors as they sterilize your body. Then you hear the

This number may appear to be a small risk, but hundreds of people that endure the horrors of anesthesia awareness are left emotionally and physiologically traumatized. As Roisin Ní Mhuircheartaigh, a researcher at the University of Oxford puts it, “Awareness in anesthesia is a 'never event' (errors in medical care that are clearly identifiable, preventable, and serious in their consequences for patients)—it isn't good enough for it to be rare”(Heitz). Anesthesia awareness awareness is life changing, and in many cases, life ruining, and the realities of experiencing this medical phenomenon are so atrocious and appaling that all United States hospitals should be mandated to use brain imaging machines in the operation room in order to give all patients confidence that they will be properly sedated when entering the operating