Patient advocates are looking for attorneys nationwide who are willing to learn about and consider representing victims of anesthesia awareness. Are you aware of awareness? If not, please visit www.anesthesiaawareness.com to learn about this life-devastating medical trauma.

Anesthesia awareness, being left fully conscious and thinking clearly, feeling every cut about 50% of the time, while totally and helplessly paralyzed during what is supposed to be full general anesthesia, occurs 100-200 time per day in the US alone. Victims of this trauma almost always suffer from PTSD, loss of families, loss of jobs, debilitating depression and PTSD triggers and panic attacks, sleep deprivation and disturbances for the rest of their lives. Many consider suicide; some have committed suicide. Few are able to continue working.

There are thousands of victims needing representation in this little-known field. They have been told they were not awake by their anesthesia providers (until they quote conversations during surgery verbatim); that they were dreaming; that proven technology to help prevent awareness is too expensive or not effective. The records are not clear in the first place and are frequently altered. The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert in 2004 about this issue (www.TheJointCommission.org).

While awareness victims lack visible physical artifacts, like “bloody stumps,” they are as handicapped as anyone. They are usually unable to make a living and have continuing psychiatric and medication bills. Our military is only now beginning to realize the devastation caused by PTSD (and the sometimes violent sequelae).

Perhaps the best way to bring home the devastation of anesthesia awareness is this: Consider, as horrible as each is, a rape, a kidnapping, a war situation, a 9/11 scenario – but take away any ability to run, moan, talk, cry, move anything, warn, fight, scream, ask for help in any way – and you can’t even pass out: that is anesthesia awareness. These people need help!

Contact Carol Weihrer, President and Founder of the Anesthesia Awareness Campaign, if you are willing to learn about anesthesia awareness and the need for contingency representation of these victims. She can be reached at: anesawareness@aol.com or 703-437-7327.

Awareness has garnered a huge amount of media attention (Google Carol Weihrer, Anesthesia Awareness, Tony O’Dell and Anesthesia Awareness Campaign to see the volume) and was even the subject of a recent movie called AWAKE starring Jessica Alba.