While there have been fewer stories of anesthesia awareness in recent years, 3 patients describe in horrifying detail what it's like to be aware on the operating table but unable to speak or move.

An article in the UK's Daily Mail looks at the stories of 3 women, Alexandra Bythell, Dianne Parr and Juliette Wills, who say they can recall their surgeries while under anesthesia. The article cites a study that found that between 2011 and 2014, more than 300 people suffered anesthesia awareness during surgery in Great Britain and Ireland.

According to the article, Ms. Bythell was having her appendix removed when she says she woke up on the operating table, just before surgeons were preparing to cut into her abdomen. She had been given muscle relaxants and was paralyzed. "I was hysterical with panic but completely unable to do anything about it," says Ms. Bythell. Fortunately, the article says, the surgical team realized she was awake before making the first incision and increased her anesthesia.

Ms. Parr was going to the dentist's office to remove two teeth in her lower jaw. After receiving general anesthesia, she says she did not fall asleep as planned. She had been given a muscle relaxant and says could not alert surgeons that she felt "searing pain" throughout her whole body as they removed the teeth. She eventually passed out from the pain and woke up again just as they were giving her stitches.

Finally, the article discusses Ms. Wills, who was undergoing a 7-hour operation to remove her colon when she says she woke up on the operating table just after the surgery was completed. She claims the epidural she was given was not applied properly. Ms. Wills says she was in the operating room when she woke up to feeling like "her torso was on fire." After a nurse noticed her heart rate was high, her epidural was reinserted and she fell back to sleep.

All of the women quoted say that they have suffered psychologically since experiencing anesthesia awareness, and some have won settlements from lawsuits over the incidents.

Kendal Gapinski