Jad Abumrad

Starting with the box that's in front of us now, that gap that Carl talked about where you go, boom.

You're gone.

And then, suddenly you're back.

What happens in that gap?

That's what's crazy.

It's been almost 170 years since William Morton did his thing in front of those med students, and we've moved way beyond ether.

So here we've got propofol, we've got sevoflurane, dexmedetomidine, ketamine.

We've got all these new drugs, but we still don't know exactly how they work.

which for Patrick is a very practical problem.

It's very difficult actually to figure out when people aren't conscious because they can always be internally conscious to some degree, right?

And in the 1950s and 60s, he says, this became a real issue because doctors started giving patients neuromuscular blocking agents that would paralyze their muscles during surgery so they wouldn't flop around, which is a good thing.

But then you'd have these situations.

Once in a blue moon.

Where a patient would wake up in the middle of surgery.

Literally trapped, unable to move.

Eyes closed, totally still.

You know, fully awake, but no one would be able to perceive it because they couldn't move.

And that's the nightmare that, you know, may even be worse than having six strong men hold you down.

Yeah, we don't have to dwell on that.

Well, I actually did find a bunch of these stories.