Imagine waking up on the operating table during a surgery! This is not a rare phenomenon if a recent report is to be believed. Nearly one in 500 patients wakes up while on the operating table.
Patients who wake up during a surgery are aware that something is going on but are not fully awake to understand. The positive part is that they are not fearful or negative about this whole experience and most importantly do not experience pain. Such people who wake up in the course of a surgery are thought to be in the third state of consciousness.
Professor Jaideep Pandit, an Oxford University anesthetist who analyzed data on this matter found that one in 500 patients do recall something of the experience of surgery , but only one out of 15,000 patients actually discussed this experience with their Doctor.
He also found that one-third of the patients who wake up during a surgery are in a stage to move their fingers when told to do so, but appear disconnected. This state of being aware but not fully connected is named as 'dysanaesthesia'.
"What we are possibly seeing is a third state of consciousness - dysanaesthesia - in which the patient is certainly aware of events but not concerned by this knowledge, especially as they are not in pain," Professor Jaideep Pandit said.