Quote:
Originally posted by joeychitwood
In the ER, we frequently put people to sleep briefly with general anesthetics and then paralyze them with short or long acting paralytic drugs in order to place a breathing tube in the lungs. It is crucial that we maintain adequate sedation, preferably with drugs having a strong amnestic effect (drugs which induce amnesia) so that patients aren't awake and aware while they are paralyzed.
We often maintain the paralysis for hours if the patients is violent or thrashing about. We give large doses of sedatives to eliminate awareness.
We also perform many painful and invasive procedures while the person is unconscious and paralyzed. I always ask the patient if they had any awareness while they were paralyzed, and so far, no one has told me that they could remember anything.
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this is exactly the procedure the doctor described. however, the patients who were also on the panel described being awake and aware of everything that was going on although only a couple of them claimed to have actually felt the scalpal during the emergency c-section and the total hip replacement
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joey, i understand what you're saying...that no patient has ever actually told you of any awareness but how do you KNOW that it has never happened? i don't meant to question YOU personally, God knows if i'm ever in need of an e.r. in northern minnesota, i'll ask for you BY NAME and they'll probably refer me to a garage that fixes race cars
but the jist of the panel discussion was that paralytic drugs are given as well as pain meds, etc., and the patient is still awake but totally unable to move so much as a finger or blink an eye.
it's just all very fascinating to me. i know gary was always awake during the embolizations he had done to the tumor in his sinus cavity. the radiologist said that was because the procedure could cause a stroke and the only way they would know that was happening was if gary was awake to exhibit the signs.