Jonathan Drummey LMT, SEP

Tom Myers recently tweeted a link to a NYTimes article from this past December on an intensive, 26 hour-long surgery. Here’s the interesting quote, from about halfway through the article:

The finesse is in the hands. Dr. Kato’s moved with confidence and grace that became all the more apparent when he worked across the operating table from someone less deft. An anesthesiologist said Dr. Kato had “soft hands,” reflected in the monitors tracking the patient’s pulse, breathing, electrocardiogram and blood pressure. When soft hands cut, stitched and moved organs around, the monitor readings held steady, but they spiked up and down when rough hands took over.

We can presume the patient was unconscious under a general anesthesia¹ and would therefore have no conscious memory of the differing responses, and yet the unconscious (autonomic) systems of the brain were responding to the surgeons’ hands. So might there be some unconscious, implicit memory of the surgery stored within the mind/body system that might lead to difficulty later?

1. In 0.1-0.2% of surgeries, the patient has some degree of consciousness, called “anesthesia awareness“. Though rare, this can be traumatic for the patient and result in symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Part of my practice works with these issues and how to help people prevent that from happening in the first place.