Feh Trendwatch™: Anesthesia Awareness

Did you happen to catch Nip/Tuck last night? My Zankou Chicken shawarma plate-inhaling routine was rudely interrupted by another one of their beyond-gross Daisy: Story of a Facelift hommages, only this time the cringe-o-factor was increased exponentially as the patient was awake and completely immobile for her procedure (the repairing of two massive self-induced facial gashes). Her inner monologue ran along the lines of: "STOP IT! STOP THAT! I'M AWAKE! THAT BURNS! STOP CUTTING INTO MY FACE! OWWW!!"

Beyond disturbing. And, unsurprisingly, based on a hot new malpractice movement! The phenomenon's becoming a phenomenon, and it's called Anesthesia Awareness. Web sites begging people to share their experiences are popping up, such as www.anesthesiaawareness.com. From their FAQ:

I'VE NEVER HEARD OF ANESTHESIA AWARENESS. WHY NOT? Anesthesia Awareness has been one of the best-kept secrets in anesthesia, and was, at one time, one of the least-known phenomena in the medical or legal fields in general. As a result of the work of this Campaign, much media attention has been given to this problem, and slowly, the public is learning to be "aware of awareness." Yet recent studies indicate awareness is reported 100 times per working day, and we know that under-reportage may be as much as a third. Pediatric cases may occur 4-6 times as often. Those figures work out to a minimum 28,000 - 46,000 times per year in the US alone! From my own experience and the feedback of over 2500 phone contacts with awareness victims, it seems the anesthesia community is in deep denial of the number of times awareness occurs, frequently denies patient reports of the problem, many times fails to make the incidents known to the surgeon or other hospital caretakers, and certainly grossly underestimates the depth and the duration of the devastating psychological aftereffects of anesthesia awareness -- most often Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

It's a massive cover-up! In fact, I think it happened to me once! I was at the dentist and the hygienist was scraping plaque off my teeth and I was aware of every single second of it. Horrifying.

Never missing a disturbing fad it can't co-opt into a thriller starring Mark Wahlberg, Hollywood has already more than taken notice of AA, with Nip/Tuck beating everyone to the unanesthetised punch. A feature titled Awake, with AA as its primary plot, is in production, starring Hayden Christiensen (the new Mark Wahlberg? Let's see: stiff acting, white, ripped, had sex with Calvin Klein to jumpstart career...yup) and Jessica "Bet My Last Five Bucks There's A Spongebath Scene" Alba.