Patients Are Powerful » Carol Weihrer http://www.patientsarepowerful.org Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:13:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Becoming Aware of "Awareness" http://www.patientsarepowerful.org/patient-advocacy/becoming-aware-of-awareness http://www.patientsarepowerful.org/patient-advocacy/becoming-aware-of-awareness#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:45:03 +0000 admin http://www.patientsarepowerful.org/?p=59 Have you heard the term, “anesthesia awareness”? If so, do you know what it means? I thought that I did, but today I became more “enlightened.” Anesthesia awareness is a very real phenomenon of being left fully awake and aware, yet completely paralyzed, during general anesthesia surgery. As a chiropractor, naturally I’d heard the term before and assumed that it only occurred rarely. But, today I read that it happens to 100-200 people per day in the US alone! That is a shocking figure! The good news is that there is a dedicated patient advocate who, through the Anesthesia Awareness Campaign (a nonprofit patient advocacy organization), works with victims of anesthesia awareness, tries to consummate change in the anesthesia system, endeavors to make the public “aware of awareness,” and advocates for the use of brain activity monitors in every general anesthesia surgery.

For almost twelve years, Carol Weihrer has been working to educate medical professionals and the public, as well as conducting patient outreach and support. What inspired this kind of commitment? Anesthesia awareness happened to Carol Weihrer during a 5½-hour surgery to remove her eye. Immediately after her experience, Ms. Weihrer, working alone, found a mission in life to find ways to prevent and treat this “terror of all terrors.” The result was the founding of The Anesthesia Awareness Campaign.

For more information on anesthesia awareness, please visit www.anesthesiaawareness.com.

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