This is quite a long post. I considered breaking it up into two parts but decided against it. The subject matter is a tad cerebral, and I think you will get more out of reading it in one session, if you can manage it. It will be well worth the effort, especially if you ever find yourself in the future having to consider whether or not to consent to a spinal anaesthetic. Or an epidural, which we’ll also be covering in this post. So, put the kettle on, grab yourself...

Yes. You heard me correctly, but I’ll repeat what I just said: you’re not really asleep when you’re under a general anaesthetic (GA).

It’s understandable that there is confusion about exactly what a GA entails. Patients having surgery under a general anaesthetic certainly look like they’re asleep, lying still with their eyes closed, unaware of their surroundings. Anaesthetists like me don’t help the cause when we casually refer...

A beating heart has been the prime indicator of the presence of life for thousands of years. A beating heart means life. Its absence means death. Modern medicine forces us to accept that this rule is both simplistic and wrong. A person can be dead while their heart continues to beat in their chest. On the other hand, a person can be very much alive even though their heart has stopped. A person can be alive even if they don’t currently have a heart....