Wednesday

Dr Oz Waking Up During Surgery

Awake During Surgery: Shocking Look Into Surgery Mistakes
Shocking stories of anesthetized patients who become conscious but remain paralyzed during surgery. Dr. Oz revisits some of his most memorable intervention guests. Fountain of Youth game. Athlete’s Foot: the Funky Foot Fungus. Contestants compete to “Drench the Doc.”

Dr Panchali Dhar(Author: Before The Scalpel) joined Dr Oz today to talk about reasons anesthesia awareness, and what you need to know before you go under the knife. Kelly and Jeanette shared with Dr Oz and the world their experiences of being wide awake during surgery.

The horror of feeling everything, the smells, the operating team talking and they couldn't open their eyes, move any part of their body, or scream to say "I am awake."

Kelly was hit in a head on vehicle accident and required multiple surgery's and could hear everything in the operating room. First she thought she was dreaming but when she heard them talking about her son being in the vehicle and what they needed to do she became well aware that she was going to be awake for everything.

Jeanette was going in for minor surgery, or so she thought it was going to be a minor thing. Jeanette could feel them cutting her flesh across her stomach, smell her flesh burning as they were cauterizing her flesh, but she was unable to let anyone know, she said it's like being frozen inside herself.

She had severe chest pain, pain in her arm and head. She was crying but there were no tears, and next she could hear the anesthesiologist's stool slide from behind her head telling the team to stop. She thought finally they know she is awake, but no, he just got her vitals levelled and told the team to resume with the surgery.

She said there was no way she was going to die and no one know that she was awake through the whole surgery, she focused on thoughts of her children through the whole ordeal. Jeanette's surgery lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes and the thing about this being awake through the whole ordeal, it turned out she didn't need the surgery after all.

She confronted the Anesthesiologist and told him she heard everything they said about her breasts, and left the Anesthesiologist is amazement.

Risk factors for anesthesia awareness include:

1. Light anesthesia – As you might expect the most common reason for anesthesia awareness is inadequate anesthesia. Still, sometimes it is a necessary safety measure, particularly when operating on patients requiring cesarean sections, heart surgery and for certain operations performed on critically ill or trauma patients.

2. Personal history of awareness – Patients are more likely to experience anesthesia awareness if they have had it once before.

3. Machine malfunction or misuse – Can affect the amount of anesthesia delivered.
Human error – Administering the wrong dose or wrong drug.

4. Natural red hair – Redheads may be genetically programmed to need more anesthesia.

5. Family history – May point to genetic factors that influence metabolism of anesthetic agents.

6. Type of anesthesia – Some agents used to maintain anesthesia are short acting.

Dr Mike Roizen did a simulation of what an Anesthesiologist does to prepare someone for surgery. Apparently Dr Roizen was an Anesthesiologist at one time.

Dr Mike says the 3 steps you need to make sure of so your not awake during surgery are;

1. Say what medications your on to your Anesthesiologist because some of them affect how much Anesthesia they have to give.

2. If you have a family history of awareness - so if anyone in your family were aware or you were.

2. Always ask what monitoring are you using if you have any concern of this. Ask if they are using a brain level monitoring.

3 types of anesthesia: local, regional and general - General anesthesia keep patients still and pain-free, and keep them from being aware of what happens throughout their procedure and from recalling it later on.

As Dr Roizen showed us, anesthesiologists use a combination of intravenous drugs and inhaled gases to block muscle activity, pain signals and memory of the event. The exact cocktail depends on how long the patient needs to be asleep, the type of procedure being performed and the overall condition of the patient including their physical attributes and health.


Once the anesthesia is administered electronic devices continually monitor and regulate breathing, oxygen, carbon dioxide, heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure. All the while, the anesthesiologist can make adjustments as needed.

An active brain however is particularly difficult to monitor. Doctors might suspect that consciousness isn't fully dampened when they see signs such as a elevated blood pressure or heart rate, or muscle movement. But certain drugs used to achieve anesthesia may mask these changes.

Some hospitals use the bispectral index (BIS) brain-sensing monitor, similar to an electroencephalogram (EEG), to measure a patient's level of consciousness. But not all hospitals use this monitoring method and some doctors dispute their value in signaling or preventing anesthesia awareness.



Dr Oz Updates; Shea - Willie - Annette - Tasha


Shea who was addicted to sleeping pills returned to Dr Oz today. Shea is clean now, and told us the first week was hard in treatment, no pills and no sleeping. After the first week she started sleeping and now she writes down her worries through the day so she doesn't think about them at night.


Willie, Tasha, and Annette, An Obese Family deep in crisis rejoined Dr. Oz today to share their weight loss success.

They had just lost family member Everett who was over 500 pounds. Dr. Oz took these 3 with him to the operating room to watch open heart surgery done live on Mr. Greene, so they could see what happens with excess fat on the body. They were left in total awe at what they saw. Dr. Oz wanted to make them aware that they could end up on the table like Mr. Greene who needed quadruple bypass surgery.

Between losing a family member, and meeting Mr Greene they were on the road to weight loss success.


Willie lost 73 lbs.
Annette lost 31 lbs.
Tasha lost 79 lbs.

You could see a dramatic difference in all 3 as they walked out on stage, especially Willie, it was like a whole new person. To top everything of Mr Greene Came to the Dr Oz show to surprise them.

Dr Oz Natural Treatments For Foot Fungus


Fungus among us Athlete's Foot - Dr Oz natural treatment for Athlete's Foot is to make a paste of garlic and olive oil and brush it on the area of the foot. If you don't treat athlete's foot in a timely fashion, once you get those cracks in the skin you will get bacteria in there. Wear wicking socks that wick away the moisture.

Another tip to try is to squirt lemon juice on the foot, lemon is an astringent


Drench The Doc; Dr. Oz quizzes audience members about the benefits of drinking tea, he's at the mercy of a water-balloon firing squad.
Dr Oz Tea Facts;

Red tea has the least proven health benefits out of black, white, green and red teas.

White tea has the most anti-cancer benefits.

Drink 3 cups of green tea for weight loss a day.