Awareness Under Anesthesia

Case Synopsis

“I thought I was about to die. [One minute] I was wheeled into a fairly routine orthodontic operation. … Suddenly, I was aware something had gone very wrong. I could hear what was going on around me, and I realised with horror that I had woken up in the middle of the operation, but couldn’t move a muscle. … I lay there, frantically trying to decide whether I was about to die … [it was] as though the anaesthetist had removed everything from me apart from my soul.” Patient story from the NAP5 report