Hypothetically, that is.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    6 天前

    Seems pretty tame compared to various other answers, but keeping people under anesthesia longer than expected during surgery and seeing how it affects things like memory or personality.

    Supposedly after an open heart surgery I had gone through over a decade ago, my mother swears my personality changed. Though I can’t remember if that’s true because my memory has felt, in a sense, kinda foggy since then. So I wanna know if it was because I was under for longer than expected or because the surgery itself.

    • medgremlin@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      6 天前

      I would wager that it’s more to do with the surgery itself. Even transient hypoxia from blood not getting to your brain for a little bit can make a big difference. Anesthesia is used very frequently with rare complications, but complex heart surgeries have higher complication rates.

      • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        6 天前

        Sounds fair enough that it could have just been the surgery. I’m nowhere near a medical professional, but I can totally see unforseen complications having happened to me.

        • medgremlin@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 天前

          Brains are very finicky things and they get very upset if there’s any disruption in their supply of glucose and oxygen, but anesthetics are carefully selected to not disrupt that as much as possible. Anesthesia might paralyze the muscles you use to breathe, but that’s what the intubation and ventilator is for. The anesthetics we use don’t affect the heart muscle because it uses different ions and chemicals than every other type of muscle in the body to generate contractions. However, open heart surgery will absolutely mess with the heart which will disrupt circulation.

    • steeznson@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      6 天前

      I’d be interested in this too. Maybe some synapsed stop firing if they are put to sleep for long enough.

      Alternatively your mother might be gaslighting you.

      • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 天前

        I doubt she is gaslighting me because there’s not much for her to gain from her doing it. Tighter control over family is something I expect from her family rather than her.