Article content

Lynn Hillis’s cancer surgery at a Toronto hospital started smoothly enough, anesthetic knocking her out as physicians prepared to remove her uterus and ovaries.

But then in mid-operation, Hillis suddenly was not unconscious any more: she felt the surgeons inside her abdomen, heard them talking, and experienced burning pain.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Woman who felt surgeons 'rip her apart' wins Canada's first malpractice ruling over waking during operation Back to video

And yet, frozen by paralytic drugs, she was unable to move or speak.

“Someone was inside me, ripping, ripping me apart,” Hillis testified recently. “It was excruciating. It was burning and burning and burning.”

Someone was inside me, ripping, ripping me apart

The 54-year-old had suffered the nightmare scenario known as accidental surgical “awareness,” a breakdown in anesthesia that can render patients helpless witnesses to their own operations.

And in what appears to be the first court ruling on the issue in Canada, a judge hearing the woman’s medical-malpractice lawsuit has just ruled that Hillis woke up because of an anesthetist’s negligence.