From Hilarious To Horrifying, Here Are 20 Wild Stories About People Waking Up During Surgery
By Julia Corrigan,
2024-09-02
Recently, Reddit user u/LawAbidingPotato turned to the popular Ask Reddit page to ask, "People who woke up mid-surgery, what happened?" and my morbid curiosity compelled me to read literally every answer. Here are some of the best:
1. "Had IV sedation for wisdom teeth. Woke up partway through. [The] dentist said, 'Oh fuck, he’s awake.' I pointed at the IV bag, and everyone laughed, and someone said, 'He wants more.' They put me back under."
2. "I was awake for both of my hand surgeries in 2023. One time I was watching them quietly and the surgeon and assistants were talking about getting lunch [afterward, saying] they wanted tacos. I said, 'Have you ever tried *local taco place*?' and the assistant said, 'Holy shit I forgot you were awake!'"
"I guess they don’t operate on a lot of local anesthetic patients. We all got a good laugh."
3. "Woke up mid-colonoscopy. Turned [my] head to look at the screen. Said, 'Is that my colon?' Doc said, 'Say night-night.' Went back to sleep. Remembered it all."
4. "[I] barely woke up [while] getting my wisdom teeth out. I could feel them breaking up my teeth; they said I had very twisted long roots and it took a bit longer than expected. I didn’t feel pain but I remember thinking 'fuck, I’m awake.'”
5. "They were talking about buying vintage lunchboxes on eBay. I wasn't properly awake or in pain, but I could 'feel'/had awareness that their hands were inside me. The anesthesiologist noticed my eyes were open, and I woke up again properly when they were wheeling me into recovery."
7. "Woke up mid colonoscopy. Said, 'It doesn't hurt, but wouldn't recommend it.' I saw the nurse rush over and push the syringe and then I was out until I woke up."
8. "This happens to me every time I get surgery. Anesthesia doesn't work properly on me. I'm not sure why. So far I've had four surgeries. The most eventful experience was my first surgery. I went to sleep, then heard someone screaming. Like full-throated, agonizing, sounds-like-a-murder screaming. So I woke up fully ready to go help because what was happening and then the pain hit me — they were cutting through tissue and trying to find [and] extract shards of a [shattered bone] — and I realized it was me screaming."
"I was screaming so loudly that people outside the room heard me. Even my mom in the waiting area heard me. She told me later that staff came running to talk to her about what was happening and were extremely apologetic. Apparently everybody was traumatized—my mom, the staff, the doctors working on me—because nobody was expecting it.
"After that, my other experiences were way less remarkable because I knew what was going to happen, was prepared for it, and could warn the doctors beforehand. So in those instances, it was mostly nothing. I could hear the people talking about either what they were doing or casually talking about their weekend/outside interests. I could feel the pain of what they were doing and the general weirdness of having hands and tools and stuff inside my body, moving and touching things that ordinarily don't get moved or touched."
9. "Was drugged up but awake when I had four stents fitted. Heard the surgeon say, "Inflating the stent..." then agonizing pain hit me so hard [that] I seemed to come out of the morphine-filled state and asked them not to try and kill the patient."
"More morphine [was] injected and [the] pain went away again.. the moral is, watch your cholesterol, diet, and exercise... don't get stents fitted, they hurt like fuck."
10. "The surgeon said ‘Oh hello,’ and the anesthesiologist looked terrified. I asked to see what they had removed as they were stitching me up at that time. They showed me — it was really neat to see, honestly."
"Then I thanked them for helping me and I was out again. Didn’t feel a thing and clearly remember it all. However, I did [experience] vasovagal [syncope] after surgery and don’t remember that."
11. "I was having cataract surgery (late 20s, thanks Mom and Dad for the cool genes). Beforehand, I let them know that I need a bit more pain meds than most people. They were like, 'Aww you’ll be fine.'"
"I see this crazy bright red gross shit and it’s completely silent. Somehow I was able to get out 'Guys, I’m awake.' (At least in my brain that’s what I said.) And it was silent, I was trying so hard not to move my eye because, you know, [a] scalpel near your eyeball/melting your lens is terrifying. I started shaking my hand to get their attention and they finally said 'We’ve got a mover,' and, praise God, something about more drugs.
"Everything went well but I get in a panic thinking about that often."
12. "I woke up when they were wrapping up, so the cutting was done. My muscles were still paralyzed and I had a breathing tube. I became aware of everything and the fact I couldn't [do the motion of breathing]. I started to panic, which made my heartbeat rise. That's when they noticed I was awake. They comforted me and gave me an extra sleeping agent."
"Even though I didn't experience the surgery or anything it was still fairly anxiety-inducing. [The] hospital pretty much waved [it] under the rug. Barely even acknowledged it."
13. "I have woken up for one tooth extraction and two colonoscopies. Spoke to the anesthesiologist on all occasions when I was supposedly under. They topped up the dosage and I fell asleep again. For context, I am a stealth redhead. The hair in my head is dark but when I was younger, my beard was red. I also have a redheaded kid, so I clearly carry the gene. Redheads are notoriously tough to anesthetize."
14. "I'm a stealth redhead too. You know how most people go blonde with sun damage? I go reddest red. I had to get a really bad ingrown toenail cut out, [and] as they were putting me under they said to count back from 100. I believe they usually expect you to be out by about 90. I made it to the low thirties."
"Then I woke up partway through and asked if I was supposed to be awake. They were a bit freaked out and I was like 'No no, it doesn't hurt, it's fine, don't worry about it!' before I went under again.
"THEN when it was all over and I was waking up at the end, I was wide awake but totally unable to move anything but my eyes. I was in that state of 'this should really be freaking me out but isn't for some reason,' and was just staring intently at everyone that came into view hoping they'd say something."
15. "I got my appendix removed in my late-teens. Woke up and had a bit of a freakout moment seeing bright lights and multiple covered faces. My immediate reaction was to get up, but before I knew it, two hands grasped tightly around each of my arms, pinned me down, and I was back out in seconds."
16. "I woke up while they were putting my femur back into my leg. I didn’t see much but I remember feeling like I was being shaken. Surgery sometimes requires some violent movements I guess."
17. "I was having sinus surgery. Woke up and watched the surgeon pounding away with a chisel. I remember watching everyone freak out when they saw I was awake. Then back to sleep I went. Didn’t feel any pain. I was legit interested. Haha. Doesn’t bother me one bit."
18. "Not me but my dad. He was getting surgery to fix his septum (the bone/cartilage between your nostrils) because he had gotten his nose broken a few times playing football. This was in the early '70s and he said he woke up to them smashing his nose with a hammer. Traumatized him for life, lol."
19. And finally: "When I had my wisdom teeth removed I woke up partway and had this extremely clear image of Clyde from South Park in my head. Didn't feel any pain or anything. Just Clyde."
Some were funny, some were terrifying, but none of these were anything I would want to experience. If you have a wild medical story, feel free to share down below!
Note: some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.
I had my upper teeth removed for dentures. After a few minutes under I woke up, said that I needed to pee and they finally gave me more pain meds. Really had to pee as soon as I woke up the second time!
GW
09-03
I’m surprised so many people have full sedation for wisdom teeth removal. I had all mine removed with local anesthesia
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
