Tuesday 8 July 2008

Surgery Under Hypnosis 'Was Pain Free'


Tea and biscuits are Bernadine Coady's first request straight after an operation on her her knee.


There's no need for her to come round after a general anaesthetic, no nausea as she recovers, because Ms Coady was never put to sleep. She hypnotised herself.

"I didn't feel any pain" said the 67-year-old from Cambridgeshire. "I felt tugging - but that's not pain. I don't have any pain at the moment.

"I was just telling the surgeon, I felt uncomfortable as I had too many pillows! My positioning gave me more problems than the knee!"

There was no trance-like state or deep sleep for Ms Coady - at times during the surgery she even spoke to her surgeon, Ahmed Shair.

It was the third time Mr Shair from the private Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital in Peterborough had operated on her while she was hypnotised.

Ms Coady said her self-hypnosis began as soon as she was told she needed surgery, in this case three weeks ago.

She visualised situations to help her enter a pain-free 'zone'.

"I imagine two blocks of ice on my knee to freeze it and spray the top of my knee and that's all my preparation and I tell myself I won't feel any pain," she said.

"Later on I'm thinking what's happening and visualising the doctor, in my mind's eye I'll be thinking what he's seeing, looking at the tissues, and the tendons.

"I'm telling myself I'm ok, I won't have pain, and that's all there is to it."

Mr Shair assured us Ms Coady's arthroscopy is an extremely painful procedure, involving a number of cuts to the knee.

He admitted he preferred patients to have a general anaesthetic but said he respected her choice.

Ms Coady is now recovering at home. Any post-operative pain is also managed through the power of her mind.

She insisted this was no stunt or illusion - she's a trained hynotherapist who has found her own way to push the boundaries of conventional medicine.

source

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