Feeling faint?

Have you ever woken up under the operating table or in a crumpled heap in a corner of day surgery or spent most of an amniocentesis with your head between your knees? Jessica Whitworth used to...

Fainting was a common occurrence in my student life, and a little informal research leads me to believe that I am not alone in hitting the floor at the most inappropriate times.

The first time was as a first year on one of my seven day long “this is what a patient looks like” attachments. I was invited to watch a pleural tap; I lasted until the venflon pierced an artery, and blood hit the curtain. A kind nurse escorted me, ashen faced, with my blood pressure in my boots, to a nearby chair and cheerily told me that I would get used to it. Two years on, I had not.

The mere thought of watching an operation set my pulse racing--the preoperative anticipatory “fight or flight” response--and then soon after entering theatre by a profound intraoperative bradycardia, the usually final vasovagal event.

The slightly odd thing was that if the patient was under general anaesthetic, I was unperturbed and able to …