From Eileen Williams
The most intriguing fact I remember from my training in anaesthesia was that
one could anaesthetise tadpoles at atmospheric pressure, but if one increased
the ambient pressure they then woke up. Tadpole anaesthesia—there’s a
specialist field!
Indeed, I thought that anaesthesia itself was a specialist field. I trained
for six years at university for my basic MBChB to become a doctor, and for a
further ten in anaesthesia to pass specialist exams from the College (now Royal
College) of Anaesthetists, before becoming a consultant in anaesthesia.
Imagine my surprise therefore, to read your article’s first sentence:
“Surgeons have been putting patients under with general anaesthesia for 150
years.”
gwilliam@netcomuk.co.uk
