PATIENTS describe it as like being buried alive. The worse part is not the pain, they say, although that can be excruciating, but the horror of being paralysed, unable to talk and yet totally aware of what the surgeon is doing to you.
Suffering like this could be greatly reduced. A large international trial has proved that a simple “awareness” device, called a BIS monitor, can cut the number of cases of awareness during surgery by 80 per cent. The device is already used to monitor the depth of anaesthesia in some hospitals in the US, but few anaesthetists in…
