I just wonder why the doctors dont ever say "by the way this could FUCKING KILL YOU so for real dont eat" instead of tossing it in offhandedly the way you tell someone to wash the dishes

I was in the hospital for sepsis and the patent in the next room was going in for a bilateral leg amputation due to diabetes, his friends came in about 30 minutes before his surgery and they all did shots together for about 10 minutes before the nurse saw what was going on . I have never seen a more angry nurse in my life  . The surgery was cancelled for that day also .

Several years ago I was going to have surgery and was told no food or drink, not anything, not even water.  They made a point of that, repeating it 5 times.  But when it came time to get my surgery, my blood pressure was high because I didn't take my blood pressure meds.  They were all mad at me for not taking my meds.  I pointed out that they made it absolutely 100% clear that I was absolutely not to eat or drink anything, not even water, so I didn't take my medicine.  They all acted as if I was stupid for following their instructions to the letter and told me, "well, you can drink a little water to take your medication".  They should have told me that before.  How do you think I felt?  I fasted for nothing.  I was the one who was hungry, thirsty and had to reschedule and fast all over again.

Reminds me of the story of a lady checking in at surgery with her 10 year old son. Nurse asks if he has eaten anything in the last 8-10 hours. She says no, while the kid is eating a bag of Doritos. She gets mad when the surgeon cancels surgery.

I remember hearing a story about a dad who had to bring his young daughter in for surgery, he felt that the "no eating or drinking" rule was too strict so he let her have breakfast, she later died of pulmonary aspiration during surgery and that has scared me into listening to my doctor very closely

I was wondering how anesthesia was handled with emergencies, such as appendectomies, where the patient hasn’t had time to fast before the surgery. Thanks for posting.

As somebody who spent nearly six weeks in the hospital with aspiration pneumonia and a related lung abscess after I aspirated my stomach contents during knee surgery, I can attest that this is a serious and pressing concern.

"She was fussing because she was thirsty, so I gave her a little juice. I didn't think it was a big deal
" the dad said to the surgeon, after his daughter almost died from aspirating fluid into her lungs while under anesthetic.

Trying to explain this to my cats before they have a dental cleaning under anesthesia is always an issue.  We have to go around the house the night before and make sure that all the water bowls are taken up and all the toilets are closed.  It's especially a point of argument if only one is going under anesthesia and the other has to whine and go hungry all day.

A friend of my dad's has a story related to this. He was set to do surgery on a little girl, about 7 or 8, and instructed her parents not to let her eat anything from the night before the procedure. While on the operating table, she started vomiting, and went into cardiac arrest.

It turned out that, since the little girl had been complaining that she was hungry, her parents had decided some eggs for breakfast would surely be fine... right?

In the end, they managed to bring the girl back, but that story has always stuck with me.

I once showed up early for a survey and heard someone else being taken back for the same thing. The guy started talking about how big of a breakfast he had and how good it was. They canceled his surgery

I had an emergency appendectomy when I was 18, in 1980. A couple of hours before my symptoms became bad enough that we headed to the hospital, my mom got me to try eating a light lunch to see if it helped. The first thing I heard when I woke up in recovery was two orderlies speculating about whether it was half-digested chicken soup or chicken salad they had just cleaned up. I signaled my return to consciousness by croaking "Soup". 🙂

I recently had ACL surgery. It's not just food, even water has to be limited. They allowed me to have one small cup in the morning. When I asked for a 2nd serving of water, they gave me half a cup. I quit drinking from 10:30am and started surgery at 2:00-2:30pm

I dutifully fasted for a surgery, and reported to the hospital early.  During pre-op a resident asked me the time of my last food or fluid.  I said 8 pm (I vomit easily).  Then he asked what I had for breakfast. My jaw dropped.  He said it happens frequently.  😮

And here I was thinkin y’all didn’t want us eating X hours prior to surgery, because you didn’t want us defecting or urinating while being operated on lol

having to fast for twelve hours before my surgery made me so stressed. for some reason i was paranoid that i would somehow eat something without knowing lol

We had a patient come in for a tilt table test. I asked her when she ate last. Answer was, about two hours ago. What and how much did you eat? A plate of liver and onions with mashed potatoes and a coke. She got rescheduled! I had a chat with her about why it’s important to not eat prior to this test. There is a risk of aspiration should a patient lose consciousness.
I have been in other situations where the patient says they’ve not ate but during a procedure the truth comes up….literally!
All we have to go on is what the patient says.

I couldn’t even drink water 12 hrs before my surgery. Since I was having surgery involving skin, I couldn’t even use lotion, or Chapstick. It was unbearable, but I’m grateful I followed instructions.

My sister's first husband was prone to nausea and vomiting, so in addition to telling him not to eat, there was also a notation in his chart before he went in for surgery to keep his head elevated to avoid aspiration.  The surgeon ignored the notation, BIL barfed and aspirated, and he suffered severe brain damage from hypoxia.
Now if my sister had still been married to him at the time, she'd have been rich. (They'd divorced a couple years prior, but he got along so well with my parents that he remained "part of the family".)  BIL's second wife got a nice fat malpractice settlement.

I had an emergency surgery only 3 to 4 hours after I ate. But if I didn't have the surgery I had a very high risk of death so it was worth the risk.