Confused-Given Narcan after sedation

[TAG145]

Hi All-just wanted some opinions. I had a light sedation procedure for a nerve block in my back. This was my third one. Usually, the procedure finishes, I get myself down from the table, they wheel you into your room, get dressed, remove IV and you leave. This one, I have no recollection of anything except hearing people saying “come on, wake up, let’s go, come on…” I couldn’t speak or open my eyes or move but heard and felt them shaking me. I finally am fully awake, start vomiting and see my husband standing back around 6 or so people around me-his eyes wide and he’s shocked. Long story, but apparently I went unconscious immediately after the procedure, while wheeling me to my husband, my legs were falling under the wheel chair and he goes to me, I’m gray/white, lips gray, he’s tapping my cheeks, I’m slumped down and says something is wrong, then I start gasping for breath, head back. People swarm me, they tell him to go get a person from room one. He stays out of the way down the hall but comes back when he hears them saying my name and talking more normally. My husband sees a vial of naloxone and zofran on the table next to me and the nurse says “yeah that narcan and zofran for nausea”. So, in talking with them they say I had a vasovagal reaction. But, then comments like “well that’s enough excitement for one day”. I asked how I got on the gurney and they said “I just threw you up there” and “I was a second away from starting CPR”. I’ve had vasovagal reactions multiple times before. Usually, resolves when I would sit down. Passing out once due to kidney stone but they basically caught me in a wheel chair and woke up seconds later. The gasping for breath, color, length of unconsciousness, reaction from them is odd and my husband & I are both kind of freaked out by what happened. Does anyone have experience with vasovagal to this degree? They gave me fentanyl for sedation and said they did not give more than before. I am not looking for anything other than needing to know if this was purely me reacting abnormally-was it to the drugs or procedure. Or was there potentially something on their end. I already was diagnosed with malignant hyperthermia years ago (allergy to anesthesia-succinylcholine) but they say this is not related.
Any thoughts or experiences with this? Does this sound right? Narcan for vasovagal?

 

[Alex Jaramillo]

Something similar happended to me after a work place injury a few years ago. I think it has something to do with the nerves. I never had problems with fainting/losing consciousness before then. It messed up my balance and led to further injuries. I almost died last December. Im managing now. Trying to take things slow and stay healthy. I hope things get better for you. Everyday is a new beginning, another mountain to climb

 

[Alex Jaramillo]

Also they definitely messed up by giving you fentanyl

 

[TAG145]

Also they definitely messed up by giving you fentanyl

wow--sorry you almost died! That is scary for sure!
As far as fentanyl, do you mean giving it to me as a sedative? It definitely has a stigma now and is extremely potent vs others. I do think that it is a strange over-reaction to be vasovagal. I also feel a little like they are rewriting what happened. I'm not saying they are negligent by any means and I know people react differently to things but I just want to trust they are telling me the truth, which I don't feel like is happening. How would I go into another procedure like this? They are saying I could get up to 10 of these a year and I'm on #3. They said they gave me a reversal drug when I was done with the procedure, so it makes me wonder if that was a reversal or more fentanyl because less than 1 min. after the procedure & after "reversal" all the craziness occurred. They also said I got off the table and into the wheel chair myself. Vasovagal in the past for me have been when standing or changing position, so if I was getting UP off the table, you'd think it would precipitate a reaction at that time. I'd love to discuss with a anesthesiologist to get their perspective, but I don't think that will be possible. Thanks for your input.

 

[Blossom]

@TAG145, it sounds to me like it was a medication reaction to fentanyl that narcan reversed. Our body sometimes processes drugs differently from time to time but the person who administered the drug could have also given you too much inadvertently. Humans make mistakes all the time. There’s also the possibility a pharmacy error.
Edit: they will not admit it if they gave you too much.

 

[TAG145]

@TAG145, it sounds to me like it was a medication reaction to fentanyl that narcan reversed. Our body sometimes processes drugs differently from time to time but the person who administered the drug could have also given you too much inadvertently. Humans make mistakes all the time. There’s also the possibility a pharmacy error.
Edit: they will not admit it if they gave you too much.

Thank you for responding with your thoughts. I agree with your assessment and know they would never admit it. I work with incident investigations & corrective/preventative actions in my job, my thoughts go to whether they investigated and put something in place to prevent it. Everyone’s reaction to it in that day was not one of someone who just fainted from pain.

 

[laoa]

Too me it sounds like you somehow OD'd on fentanyl and that the narcan saved you. Did they repeat the narcan injection or did they get you on a narcan drip? Fentanyl works longer than naloxone so they'd have to repeat the naloxone if fentanyl was actually the problem.
I dont have much experience with blocks, was the fentanyl a part of the block or was it administered iv as an adjuvant? Blossom mentiond potential errors, I would add that the fentanyl could've accidentally (partly) been administered IV which would've given an acute systemic effect with sedation/fainting and respiratory depression as a result.
Vasovagal reaction is definitely also possible and can look really ugly sometimes.

 

[TAG145]

Too me it sounds like you somehow OD'd on fentanyl and that the narcan saved you. Did they repeat the narcan injection or did they get you on a narcan drip? Fentanyl works longer than naloxone so they'd have to repeat the naloxone if fentanyl was actually the problem.
I dont have much experience with blocks, was the fentanyl a part of the block or was it administered iv as an adjuvant? Blossom mentiond potential errors, I would add that the fentanyl could've accidentally (partly) been administered IV which would've given an acute systemic effect with sedation/fainting and respiratory depression as a result.
Vasovagal reaction is definitely also possible and can look really ugly sometimes.

This makes the most sense. Thanks for your perspective. They gave me fentanyl IV and supposedly the reversal drug IV. I know they gave Narcan IV also (+ benadryl and zofran). They had me stay for about 1.5 hours before removing IV and letting me leave.

 

[Peatress]

Perhaps the formula was changed – the medical industry seems very keen on nanoparticles these days.

Recent advances in pain management based on nanoparticle technologies - Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Background Pain is a vital sense that indicates the risk of injury at a particular body part. Successful control of pain is the principal aspect in medical treatment. In recent years, the advances of nanotechnology in pain management have been remarkable. In this review, we focus on literature...

jnanobiotechnology.biomedcentral.com

You Might Be In A Medical Experiment And Not Even Know It

I guess Big Pharma is reaching new lows in its quest for turning all of us into guinea pigs. This article gives a few striking examples on how the medical industry manages to circumvent the golden rule of "informed consent" in order to draw more people into studies that would otherwise probably...

raypeatforum.com

 

[TAG145]

Perhaps the formula was changed – the medical industry seems very keen on nanoparticles these days.

Recent advances in pain management based on nanoparticle technologies - Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Background Pain is a vital sense that indicates the risk of injury at a particular body part. Successful control of pain is the principal aspect in medical treatment. In recent years, the advances of nanotechnology in pain management have been remarkable. In this review, we focus on literature...

jnanobiotechnology.biomedcentral.com

You Might Be In A Medical Experiment And Not Even Know It

I guess Big Pharma is reaching new lows in its quest for turning all of us into guinea pigs. This article gives a few striking examples on how the medical industry manages to circumvent the golden rule of "informed consent" in order to draw more people into studies that would otherwise probably...

raypeatforum.com

oh wow! Thanks for sending! Big Pharma is an unstoppable train--edible vaccines, medical experiments. I guess I will never know, but I think my suspicions are correct. Love this site for opening my eyes to so many things!