Court awards woman who woke during surgery

[HURAKAN]

Court awards woman who woke during surgery
62-year-old wins $11,000; claims unable to tell doctors she was in pain

VIENNA, Austria - A court on Wednesday awarded $11,000 to a woman who said she woke up during major abdominal surgery but was unable to tell doctors she was in terrible pain.

The 62-year-old retiree in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia had demanded more than $57,000 in compensation for mental and physical suffering during the October 2002 operation, public broadcaster ORF reported.

The court rejected that amount, saying there was ruling insufficient proof that the unidentified woman regained full consciousness. It threw out her claim of malpractice.

Her lawyer had argued that the anesthesiologist forgot to attach a tube through which the patient was to be kept under sedation. The woman testified she could feel the surgeons using a scalpel and other instruments on her, but was unable to speak or move.

Wednesday’s ruling ended a three-year legal battle.
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Poor woman, I know anyone can make a mistake, but just having a surgery is traumatic, now imagine feeling the pain and not being able to do anything.

[JonathanBelles]

I've heard of this in the past. Not enough stuff to put you under (word just slipped my mind) or the wrong stuff to put a person under. Basically you are awake, but trapped in your sleeping body.

[Extremeweatherguy]

This subject is the seen in the new movie "Awake".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211933/

It is called "anesthetic awareness" and supposedly happens to about 700 people each year.

[Cookiely]

I was told I would be given general anesthesia for surgery, but a short while later they said they were going to do a spinal, then they told me a local. They gave me a sedative and local but I was awake and when they started to cut, I reared up and missed hitting the surgeon by an inch. If he hadn't rolled away I would have decked him. He started screaming knock her out. I was bleeding like crazy. I've had some horrible experiences under the knife that I won't go into. I should have sued but didn't.

[Ptarmigan]

Waking up during surgery is really scary.

[Squarethecircle]

I've only had surgery about four times, and I've stayed under pretty well. I think, though, that for once the settlement is not bizarrely high on this one, and that's a good thing.

[HollynLA]

It's happen to me, after the birth of my youngest son, I needed emergency surgery and woke during the middle of it screaming out in pain. At least I was able to scream and let them know I could feel everything.

[tropicana]

i've never had surgery or even ever had to go into a hospital to be hospitalized, hospitals are scary places, i don't like the smell, so *hospitally*. i doubt thats a real word, but haaa you know what i mean.

Id imagine waking up during any surgical procedure must be very scary and painful, more painful than scary.

[DaylilyDawn]

When I was pregnant with my youngest son, the day he was to be delivered I had eaten earlier in the day so they gave me general anesthesia before starting the surgery for the C-Section. At one point I woke up and told the surgeon I was going to be sick, I needed to throw up. The nurse got a pan of some kind and held it up by my head and by turning my head towards it I throw up in it. After I finished, I went back under anesthesia.