The Friedberg Method of Goldilocks Anesthesia: The Breakthrough Approach for Greater Patient Safety and Comfort
During surgery, how can your anesthesiologist know whether you’re getting too much or too little anesthesia?
Traditionally, anesthesia dosages have been determined by a formula using patient body weight and past health history. In addition, anesthesiologists have been trained to assess patient comfort and sleep levels during surgery by checking vital signs like heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygen levels.
Unfortunately, neither of these prevalent dosage and monitoring practices provides a high degree of reliability for 21st century care.
The Friedberg Method is a proven and time-tested method of determining more precisely how a patient is doing under anesthesia. As a result, it can put an end to over- or under-anesthesia—causes of severe patient discomfort, disorientation, dementia, or even death.
Goldilocks Anesthesia adds a brain monitor to the Friedberg Method. The brain monitor allows the anesthesiologist to know with certainty whether more or less anesthesia is needed. The brain monitor also provides a numerically reproducible number below which the patient can have surgical stimulation without pain.
In addition to outstanding patient comfort, The Friedberg Method of Goldilocks Anesthesia’s record of safety has been nothing short of phenomenal:
• NO pulmonary embolisms (deadly blood clots to the lungs),
• NO patient deaths (like Donde West or Stephanie Kuleba),
• NO cardiac arrests (or near death experiences like Tameka Foster),
• NO negative pressure pulmonary edema or aspiration,
• NO 911 calls, and
• NO hospital admissions for postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) or pain management
It is so safe that the US military uses it on wounded soldiers in the forward MASH units, a development that earned Dr. Friedberg a US Congressional award.
Getting Over Going Under explains The Friedberg Method of Goldilocks Anesthesia in detail. It outlines how you can have your anesthesiologist more effectively keep you or your loved ones sedated and comfortable using 21st century care and it also reveals the shortcomings of 20th century anesthesia. It details the reasons for patient discomfort and worrisome side effects and how they can be eliminated. And it clearly shows what you, the patient can do to promote having your anesthesiologist use Goldilocks Anesthesia for cosmetic and other surgeries.
The Friedberg Method was developed in 1992 and enhanced with the addition of the brain monitor to become Goldilocks anesthesia. More than 5,000 of Dr. Friedberg’s patients-—and he, himself, when he had hip surgery—have enjoyed its many benefits. If you or a loved one are facing surgery of any kind, this book will assist you in assuring the safest and best possible outcome with your anesthesia experience.
Read this book and take the knowledge on its pages to your doctor so that you can greatly benefit from having a brain monitor used when anesthesia is needed.
* Dr. Friedberg has absolutely no financial connection with brain monitor manufacturers or anesthetic drug producers.
_____
About the Author
Barry Friedberg, MD, has been a board certified anesthesiologist for over three decades.
The Friedberg Method was developed in 1992 and enhanced with the addition of the brain monitor in 1997 to become Goldilocks Anesthesia. Goldilocks Anesthesia allows anesthesiologists to confidently dispense “not too much, not too little, but just the right dosage” of anesthesia. For applying his method to wounded soldiers on the combat field, Dr. Friedberg received a US Congressional award.
Dr. Friedberg is a prolific writer, passionate speaker and founder of the non-profit Goldilocks Foundation. He lives with his wife, Shelley, and his 120-pound Golden Retriever, Montgomery, in Southern California. He practices throughout the region, and speaks across the country and around the globe on the benefits of putting The Friedberg Method of Goldilocks Anesthesia into practice with measurable and repeatable results.
______
Getting Over Going Under
Barry
L. Friedberg
Copyright © 2010 Barry L.
Friedberg
Smashwords Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Every effort has been made in preparing this book to provide accurate and up-to-date information that is in accord with standards and practice at the time of publication. Nevertheless, the authors, editors, and publisher can make no warranties that the information contained herein is totally free from error, not least because clinical standards are constantly changing through research and regulation. The authors, editors, and publisher therefore disclaim all liability for direct or consequential damages resulting from the use of material contained in this book. Readers are strongly advised to pay careful attention to information provided by the manufacturer of any drugs or equipment that they plan to use.
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9829169-1-9
Cover Photograph and Author Photograph: Jurgen Reisch
All proceeds from the sale of this ebook go to support the public education mission of the non-profit Goldilocks Foundation.
_______
To my wife, Shelley. This book could not have been completed without her love and unselfish support. My life would not be as wonderful and my work not nearly as meaningful without her in it.
_______
Table of Contents
Introduction: Wake Up, Don’t Throw Up!
Part 1: The Goldilocks Principle—Measuring Is Better Than Guessing
Chapter 1 Why Old Anesthesia Techniques Don’t Work
Chapter 2 Knowledge Conquers Anesthesia Fears
Chapter 3 Facing the Establishment—Getting the Goldilocks Method
Chapter 4 Why My Crusade & Goldilocks Foundation
Chapter 5 The Michael Jackson Death—A Predictable, Avoidable Tragedy
Part 2: Five Things You MUST Know Before Anesthesia
Chapter 6 Things You MUST Know Before Anesthesia
Chapter 7 The First Thing You MUST Know before Anesthesia—Measuring the Wrong Thing (20th Century Anesthesia) Versus Measuring the RIGHT Thing (21st Century Anesthesia)
Chapter 8 The Second Thing You MUST Know before Anesthesia—The Obstacles in Your Path
Chapter 9 The Third Thing You MUST Know before Anesthesia—Why You Have Pain after Surgery
Chapter 10 The Fourth Thing You MUST Know before Anesthesia—Ketamine, the Fantastic Drug That Keeps You from Feeling Pain
Chapter 11 The Fifth Thing You MUST Know before Anesthesia—You DO Have the Power to Get Goldilocks Anesthesia for Your Surgery
Part 3: A Patient’s Bill of Rights
Chapter 12 The Nine Traits of an Empowered Patient
Chapter 13 Eight Simple Tips on How to Talk to Your Doctor
Chapter 14 Doing the Research—Five Steps for Coming Prepared
Chapter 15 A Patient’s Bill of Rights
Chapter 16 The Nine Things You Should Ask Checklist
Conclusion
A Message from Dr. Friedberg
_______
Introduction
Wake Up, Don’t Throw Up!
When going into the hospital for surgery, be it major or relatively minor, most of us worry about going under the knife. But it’s not the knife we should be so worried about; our concern should be going under in the first place.
In fact, a recent American Society of Anesthesiologists’ survey revealed that 75% of people had anesthesia fears and 25% would consider postponing their surgery because of those fears.
As a patient, we may speak with our doctors several times before a surgery; we know our surgeon and are comfortable with him. We trust his credentials, his expertise, and his experience—or we wouldn’t be under his care in the first place. But when’s the last time you spoke with, let alone met, your anesthesiologist?
Maybe he comes in a few minutes before he’s about to put you under—maybe not. Even if he does, do you understand half of what he’s telling you as he runs through his protocol? Do you know when he’s going to start? Or how you’ll feel when he’s through with you? The truly shocking part of this equation is that your anesthesiologist typically knows as little about you as you do about him!
That’s because there is no scientific formula to determine just how much anesthesia to give you. Yes, your anesthesiologist can get close to determining just how many drugs to give you to keep you sedated during your surgery—typically by factoring in your weight, your age, and whether or not you smoke or drink and how often. But ultimately the resulting equation is merely an elaborate piece of guesswork, no more scientific than the comical huckster who guesses your weight at the carnival!
What typically happens as a result of this unscientific method is that your anesthesiologist either prescribes too much medication … or not enough. Now, we’ve all heard the horror stories of patients who aren’t given enough anesthesia, waking up before their surgery is complete and suffering severe pain. Since this is obviously traumatic, most anesthesiologists err on the side of caution. How? By giving you too much anesthesia instead of too little. Unfortunately, the side effects of too many drugs can be as catastrophic—though not as readily visible—as not administering enough.
Too much anesthesia can make us groggy when we wake up from surgery, increase nausea, and instigate headaches, but these are easily remedied and overcome in a hospital setting. Unfortunately, along with these less severe side effects, overmedication can trigger an Alzheimer’s-like dementia and that doesn’t go away. Suddenly you have tremendous social costs. It’s tragic because when you damage the brain to the degree of creating dementia, there is no undoing it.
These symptoms may sound uncommon, perhaps because you’ve never experienced them before, but in fact every year in this country 99.9 percent of up to 40 million people are routinely exposed to overmedication. [Source: 2004 Emory University study.] Patients over the age of fifty are especially susceptible to the risks of dementia and death from routine anesthesia overmedication. In fact, 2,255 patients died between 1999 and 2005 from routine anesthesia overmedication—nearly one a day! [Source: Li, April 2009 Anesthesiology]