Anesthesiologists and addiction

The death of Michael Jackson has made the drug propofol a well-known name. It's a widely used sedative in hospitals... But days before his death, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists warned hospitals to restrict access to propofol, because doctors and nurses who use it on patients are also abusing it...

But even providers who use it on a daily basis are unclear how potent it can be. A recent study found 30 percent of physicians who abused propofol actually died. And last year, Dr. Brent Cambron was found dead in a storage closet at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. There was a half-filled vial of propofol and other drugs surrounding his body. The anesthesiologist had been battling drug addiction.

Anesthesiologists are extremely high risk for drug abuse. They have unlimited access to drugs, and they alone control the quantities put into the patient's syringe and the amount left-over in the bottle after the end of the surgery. They are also the least likely professionals to get caught and prosecuted for their crimes. Usually if they get caught they are reprimanded or fired. They are not sent to jail. How can you tell an anesthesiologist is abusing? They always wear long sleeve shirts, even under their scrubs. This is such a stereotype that longvsleeves under the scrubs is a de-facto uniform for identifying anesthesiologists.

As if this trend wasn't scary enough, I offer a humorous anecdote that is something of a hospital urban legend. Apparently there was this anesthesiologist who meant to shoot up with fentanyl before a surgery, but in his haste mixed up his bottles and accidentally shot himself with succinylcholine, a paralytic used to relax throat muscles in patients when they are intubated. The rest of the OR staff heard a thud and rushed in to to see what the problem was. The anesthesiologist was lying on the floor, totally rigid and paralyzed but fully awake. Oops.