Re: AMC - medical question


Laney wrote:
"Ms. Velveeta" <lvelasquezNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:cgMfg.14510$VE1.288@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So.. since we have some folks in the medical professions here..

When you're going to operate on a person in a coma, how do you put them
under? Do you just assume they don't feel anything and skip the anesthesia
part? Do you still do the part to keep them from moving? (I could easily
be wrong here, but my understanding is that there are two parts to the
process - one to put the patient to sleep and one to keep them paralysed.)

So Kendall, being comatose but quite the Chatty Kathy, can feel things like
Zach's hand, so why wasn't she mind-screaming in agony as they cut her up?

General anesthesia (the kind where they put you to sleep)
has three components: one is to induce "sleep," one is a
paralytic, and one is a painkiller. OTOH, you don't usually
get general for a c-section -- I'm pretty sure it's some kind
of a block, where a smaller area of your body is anesthetized,
as opposed to a local, where only the very immediate area
is numbed. I imagine if you wanted to do general on a
coma patient, you'd still use all three components, just in
case they come out of the coma during surgery.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV),
but I did work for a group of anesthesiologists and for
a surgery center when I was younger, and I also picked
up just enough quasi-medical knowledge to be dangerous
when I practiced workers' compenstion law.


Laney

The best place for the layman (or laywoman)to get a Readers Digest
version of medical procedures is Discovery Health, TLC and EOnline
(just for Dr. 90210 though...Clean House won't work). I figure after
watching quite a few of the surgeries and listening to the various Dr's
explain what's going on you could do as Leonardo did in "Catch Me If
You Can' and carry on a conversation with someone in the field, do you
concur, Dr? (in one of his famous scenes).

.

Relevant Pages

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