Iga Jasica, a 19-year-old woman who recently had brain surgery in Poland, stunned her doctors when she regained consciousness in the middle of the operation, calmly asked how it was going, and then launched into a conversation about cats.
Physicians were shocked because the teen's brain was
exposed when she woke up, the Daily Mirror reported. Though they insist she was never in danger, doctors are now investigating whether the anesthetics given to her were properly applied.
"Despite coming round she didn’t feel anything and was never in danger," neurosurgeon Dawid Larysz said, according to the U.K. newspaper.
The operation to remove a cancerous growth on Jasica's brain took place at the Central Clinical Hospital in Katowice, Poland, over Christmas.
"I can't remember much but the doctor said he talked to me about cats, which I love," Jasica told reporters. "I missed Christmas because of this operation but it is the best present I could have had as I am now feeling great."
A study published recently in the journal Anesthesia states that out of the more than 3 million patients who received general anesthesia in the United Kingdom and Ireland, roughly one in 19,600 patients
"accidentally" woke up during surgery, according to CNN.
In the United States, the rate was much higher, according to a separate study, which said that one in 1,000 surgical patients wakes up during surgery. Most incidents of "anesthetic awareness" happened among patients who had received paralytics as part of their anesthetic cocktail, the study found.
The news of Jasica's experience brought a range of responses on social media.
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