Recent Hollywood Release does Surgical Patients no Favours

"Awake" is a Hollywood offering which will scare a lot of people. For those facing surgery it could be truly terrifying. Dr. Beth Veivers, Anaesthetic Adviser to Invivo, who brought "Awake" to our attention, has some advice to offer.

You may have heard about the movie "Awake" which has been released in Australia on DVD. It has rated very highly in reviews published on the Internet Movie Database and I have no doubt that it will be widely viewed.

Sadly, whilst it is indeed entertaining, it is factually incorrect with respect to awareness. At the beginning it presents some erroneous information on the incidence of awareness, stating that it occurs in 1 in 700 anaesthetics, the true figure is about 1 in 42,000. It leads the viewer to believe that in every case of awareness the patient, referred to as a "victim", is completely paralysed whilst being fully awake and able to feel pain, in other words the worst case scenario. The ASA brochure on the subject, available at www.asa.org.au, stresses that there is a spectrum of presentations, with full awareness associated with paralysis being exceedingly rare. Post traumatic stress, perhaps reassuringly is not discussed at all.

Unfortunately the Anaesthetist protagonist, whilst overall being portrayed as a good guy, is an alcoholic who drinks from his hip flask whilst at work and is more concerned about his social life than monitoring the patient.

There are several other themes in the film that make it all the more interesting. I recommend that you rent this movie one rainy week-end if you haven't already seen it as many of your patients will have.

Be prepared to reassure your patients about the inaccuracy of the presented figures on the incidence of awareness.

Dr. Elizabeth Veivers, MBBS UQ, FANZCA, Post Grad Dip Echo Uni Melb;
Medical Adviser - Invivo