Sleeping Awake | The Anesthesiologist's Worst Nightmare

All Rights Reserved ©

Summary

There is no prison worse than the mind. In rare cases, general anesthesia can render you sleeping awake. You are conscious but paralyzed, trapped with your senses in an impossible struggle to scream.

Status
Complete
Chapters
6
Rating
n/a
Age Rating
13+

Rushed in

This story is my first-hand account of an emergency surgery I had when I was twelve years old. This occurred in a small town in Eastern Canada approximately seventeen years ago. I had been hospitalized after collapsing at school with extreme abdominal pain. Doctors quickly determined that my appendix was severely inflamed and about to rupture.

The whole thing happened very quickly, I had just gotten to the hospital when suddenly nurses were rushing in, putting all kinds of equipment on my body and running my gurney to the operating room. I remember being so frightened I could not stop shaking, even thinking about it now gives me tremors. The doctors mistook me for being cold and covered me in warm blankets. Within a few minutes I was counting back from 100 with a gas mask on my face, slowly drifting to sleep. My eyes got heavy as I began to fade away.