Smackdown in the Operating Room

"Hey Jake, your procedure's finished. Open your eyes!"

Jake is a teen boy who underwent an endoscopy under anesthesia. The nurse anesthetist just removed his breathing tube as the anesthesia started to wear off, and he likely would soon open his eyes and follow commands. I was busy typing the procedure report on the computer, but staying close to the patient in case assistance was needed. My work was abruptly interrupted by sounds of banging and smashing against the operating table as a very confused and delirious Jake struggled to get up, and as the staff in the operating room tried to keep him down, Jake violently pushed and kicked the flurry of hands, arms and bodies around him, angrily screamed expletives, and appeared to be gaining the upper hand in the situation until all available doctors, nurses, technicians and orderlies jumped in to help secure the patient. I was also among the number, trying to immobilize his lower extremities by wrapping my arms and body against his knees. By the time we were able to securely transfer Jake to a gurney and have him physically restrained until he fully regained consciousness, I had realized that while my arms did a reasonable job controlling his legs, my 135-pound body was little match against his strength, as he literally picked me off the floor whenever he flexed his knees, dragging me like a bullrider hanging on for dear life.

Jake's delrious frenzy was an extreme example of patients whose minds pass through various stages of consciousness as they emerge from general anesthesia. While there was indeed plenty of drama in the operating room that evening, none of the operating room staff was particularly alarmed, as we all knew that it would be only a matter of minutes before he would calm down, and that he likely would not even have much memory of the incident afterwards. Jake's mental state resembled someone who is under the influence of alcohol, which robs a person of "higher" mental functions such as judgment, reason and restraint, and causes one to behave as one who seems possessed by the devil.

Just as Jake was held captive by the lingering effects of anesthetics, humans by nature are under the bondage of sin and evil, and are powerless against its destructive hold on our lives. Jesus was met by a man with an evil spirit:

This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. (Mark 5:3-5)

The apostle Paul wrote about our struggles with our sinful nature:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. (Romans 7:15-17)

On the other hand, when we yield the control of our lives to the Holy Spirit, we paradoxically gain freedom and control:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

May we remain sober and live fully as we surrender our lives to God.