Susan Burton

Like, it can actually be hard to speak up and say, stop.

She's uncomfortable.

We need to do something.

There are power dynamics between anesthesiologists and surgeons.

Maybe there's a nurse in the room who doesn't feel empowered to speak up.

And then there's actually power dynamics between patients and providers.

When you are a cesarean patient, right, you are lying open on a table.

You are so vulnerable.

Maybe you're scared that something is going to happen to your baby.

In some of these situations, you've been told it's an emergency that like this needs to happen now to protect your baby's health.

Like, do you really want to say something that might slow down the surgery?

So patients often don't speak up about pain.

So, yes, they do have ideas about why anesthesia can fail.

So, for instance, with an epidural, like maybe the needle was inserted off-center, maybe the catheter moved.

They also have ideas about how the system is failing patients.

But like as far as what exactly is going wrong, basically there's not one kind of simple eureka.

This is the problem.

This is the one thing we need to tweak.

So right now they're at a stage where they're looking at all these different areas trying to find solutions.

And what are they looking at exactly?