PennyWorld:
Thank you for the question. The answer to your question is yes...it is possible for a patient undergoing a surgical procedure to experience this scenario you describe. Any time an anesthesia provider uses a paralytic agent (any drug that paralyzes skeletal muscle) it renders the patient unable to move, communicate, or breath for that matter (without mechanical ventilation) . In fact, Vecuronium Bromide (Norcuron) is one of the durgs used in the lethal injection sequence to paralyze the respiratory muscles. It is important to note that paralytic agents alone do not fully anesthetize a patient; other adjunct drugs must be used in combination with each other to acheive general anesthesia.
However, these scenarios are very rare in occurance. We have the ability that did not exist until recently to measure and assess intraoperative awareness accurately through BIS monitoring. Your anesthesiologist should know with high probability to what level/degree a patient is under general anesthesia, hence, unaware of the surgical procedure. We utilize intraoperative awareness monitoring to reduce the incidence or potential of this unpleasant scenario.
I hope this answers your question.
Respectfully,
j
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