Anaesthetic Awareness

In many anaesthetic awareness cases that the team see some but not all patients have felt pain during an operation. However it is the memory of the experience that can often be worse and can lead to severe psychological trauma. The drugs for muscle paralysis that are often administered during surgery can leave patients utterly helpless. If a patient does wake up, there's no way to raise the alarm. They may hear and feel everything that's going on around them, but they are unable to communicate their pain or wakefulness.

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Anaesthetic awareness can occur at any stage of an operation. Some patients will only be aware for part of their surgery; others will be awake throughout. Some will suffer pain whilst others will be able to recall conversations and events. Obstetric operations and caesarean sections are the most common for anaesthetic awareness - often because the anaesthetist has the difficult job of keep mother asleep whilst not harming the baby.

The result of incorrect dosages of anaesthesia can occur for many reasons such as faulty equipment and poor technique. The outcome however has devastating consequences. We have experience of handling anaesthetic awareness cases and finding out what went wrong.