Frederick Surgical Center Receives Donation of BIS Monitors

FREDERICK, Md. -- FrederickSurgicalCenter announces the donation of seven Bi-Spectral Index (BIS) monitors by The Anesthesia Awareness Campaign and Aspect Medical Systems of Boston.  The machines will be installed and used in each of the FrederickSurgicalCenter’s operating rooms and in their procedure rooms. FrederickSurgicalCenter is now one of the only outpatient surgical centers in the area with BIS monitors.

The donation was made to honor the memory of Arthur H. Weihrer, Jr., who died in May 2006. Weihrer was a long-time volunteer at FrederickMemorialHospital and had strong ties to FrederickSurgicalCenter. Weihrer’s daughter, Carol Weihrer, is the president and founder of The Anesthesia Awareness Campaign, which she launched after awakening during a five-hour eye surgery in 1998. 

Carol Weihrer commented, “I get calls every day from people who have experienced anesthesia awareness, but now I know I won’t be receiving any from area code 301.  With this donation, and together with the monitors already in place at FrederickMemorialHospital, the people in this community can rest easy that it won’t happen to them.” She continued, “I’m also hoping that this occasion will inspire anesthesia awareness victims, the public, and the medical community everywhere to understand that patient advocacy does make a difference, and if we can all work together, we can see to it that this patient safety technology is available in all hospitals and surgery centers across the country.”

Dr. Paul Manberg, Aspect Medical System’s vice president of clinical, regulatory, and quality assurance, said, “Carol has had a strong influence in educating the medical community and the public about awareness. Our hope is that this donation will support her commitment to advance anesthesia safety and support efforts at Frederick Surgical Center to further improve the quality and safety of care they provide for patients.”

Dr. Won Lee, medical director at Frederick Surgical Center, said, “We’re indebted to Carol for organizing the BIS monitor donation, and to Dr. Manberg for donating such a generous gift. We’re very serious about patient safety and awareness at FrederickSurgicalCenter, and will make every effort to prevent anesthesia awareness here for our adult and pediatric patients.”

An estimated 20 million patients in the U.S. have surgery under anesthesia each year.  Making sure patients receive the correct amount of anesthesia can be difficult for doctors – too little can cause “intraoperative awareness with recall,” which is unexpected consciousness during surgery with memory of the experience.

New research has shown that 1 to 2 patients out of every thousand receiving general anesthesia will experience awareness with recall, and there are approximately 100 cases of awareness with recall occurring every operating day nationwide. Clinical trials demonstrated BIS-guided anesthesia reduced the risk of awareness with recall by approximately 80 percent.

BIS technology is marketed and distributed by Aspect Medical Systems, Inc., a global-market leader in brain monitoring technology.  

Source: Aspect Medical Systems, Inc.