From John Wilson
I feel you have overstated the problem of anaesthetic awareness (17 April, p 6). From the more than 50,000 anaesthetics that I have given, I have had only one patient complain of inappropriate awareness. All my patients are assessed for awareness after their operations.
I have worked in many hospitals in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the US and Singapore. The incidence in all these hospitals has been similarly low but the index of suspicion nevertheless high. I am therefore puzzled by your claim that many incidents of awareness are unrecognised. If not by the patients, recovery staff, ward nurses and anaesthetists, then by whom?
Dunedin, New Zealand
