--- title: "Man Claims He Woke Up Partway Through Spine Surgery" description: "A provocative court case may prove whether or not a man's recurrent nightmares were evidence of surgery malpractice or of an anesthetic hangover." date: "2023-01-18" modified: "2023-01-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/lawsuit-woke-spine-surgery" categories: - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "anesthesia" - "malpractice" - "San Diego" - "surgery" --- # Man Claims He Woke Up Partway Through Spine Surgery ![A provocative court case may prove whether or not a man's recurrent nightmares were evidence of surgery malpractice or of an anesthetic hangover.]() *\Image: Jack Vims via Getty / Futurism\* A provocative court case rests on a fascinating question: whether or not a man's recurrent nightmares were evidence of medical malpractice. As the [*San Diego Union-Tribune* reports](), Randy Dalo claims in his case that went to court this week that since getting spinal surgery for a cervical disc issue at UC San Diego in 2017, he's had recurring nightmares about waking up during the procedure, and believes that they're evidence of exactly that. In the vision that may or may not be a real memory, Dalo, whose wife Karen worked at UCSD Hospital for 30 years, including as a surgical tech, recounts waking up with lights in his eyes and people in hospital gear all around him. While it's quite rare — the [American Society of Anesthesiologists says]() that only one or two out of every 1,000 people put under anesthesia will have any kind of awareness at all — this kind of thing [does happen](), though thankfully fewer people remember it. Though the hospital denies that Dalo woke up during his surgery, the man's case is emboldened by his wife's discovery that soon after the procedure, the supervising anesthesiologist had his license suspended. What's more, the anesthesiologist had apparently been found unconscious on the floor of a bathroom in the hospital with vomit on his scrubs and empty syringes containing the anesthetic sufentanil surrounding him. So needless to say, the situation is messy. In addition to the hospital, Dalo's suit also names the anesthesiologist, UCSD's former head of the anesthesiology department, and a nurse for allegedly covering up the doctor's addiction, falsifying records, and lying to the couple about it. Lawyers for the hospital said that although UCSD neither denies nor condones the anesthesiologist's theft of the facility's drugs nor his use of them on the clock, they can prove via the operating room's sophisticated metrics system that Dalo was under anesthesia the whole time. Defense attorney David Weiss posited that Dalo's dreams are not evidence of "intra-operative awareness" — the technical term for waking up during surgery — but rather could be an example of "transitional awareness," the often-fuzzy state people find themselves in when coming out from under anesthesia. While much of the trial is, per the newspaper's reporting, set to center on the anesthesiologist's history with drug abuse, the entire concept of having recurring nightmares about waking up during surgery and then discovering that your anesthesiologist was not only suspended but was abusing hospital drugs is — to put it mildly — a bit freakin' horrifying. **More on (fictional) medical horror:** [*In Horrifying Short Story, X-Ray Discovers Patient Has No Skeleton*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()