Picture a relaxing scene. Maybe a beach in Tahiti, your toes in the sand, a cold drink in hand. Now imagine your favorite music playing in the background.If Dr. Alopi Patel were your anesthesiologist, that's exactly what she'd have you do while you waited on an operating table for surgery. Today, she takes us on a journey through the history and science of this cornerstone of modern medicine. Curious about other breakthroughs in the history of science? Let us know by emailing [email protected]!Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What happens while you're under anesthesia?
Okay, Alopi, let's talk about anesthesia's history. When did people start using it and what kind of chemicals were most popular back in the day?
Yes. The traditional sort of history of anesthesia kind of starts around the mid-1800s. So the most popular form of anesthesia that was studied at that time was chloroform. So ether was another one and nitrous oxide. They're all various sort of inhaled anesthetics that can knock out a patient. The first successful demonstration of anesthesia was in 1846, and this was done by William Morton.
William Morton was actually a dentist who was experimenting with different types of anesthesia, and ether was the one that he successfully demonstrated. The day that he successfully demonstrated anesthesia was October 16th, 1846, in the Ether Dome in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. And that is now called World Anesthesia Day.
How was anesthesia used or not used for people giving birth back in the day? And how has that history evolved?
So Queen Victoria actually had many children. For almost all of her children, she did not have any anesthesia. There was stigma back in the day about women having pain relief during labor and delivery because it was expected for a God's intention, right, for the pain to be insufferable, to be able to have a child.
And it wasn't until Queen Victoria herself asked to have chloroform for her eighth baby or something.
She was like, give me some of that good stuff. I am the queen.
And she essentially legitimized it, that you can have childbirth with a pain-relieving substance. And since then, we've come so far in obstetric anesthesia in terms of spinal anesthetic, epidural anesthesia for pain relief.
Wow. Okay. So let's accompany you now through this process, starting from when a patient is being induced and the anesthetic starts entering their system. What is anesthesia doing to the body?
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