(The Atlantic) – Joana did not know it then, but Freddy’s death would be linked to dozens of cases of unexplained catastrophic brain damage after routine anesthesia, all in children or young adults. Several, like Freddy, died. Others became permanently disabled.

The mystery of why Freddy died would ultimately collide with one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of medicine: How does anesthesia work in the first place? How is it that anesthesiologists can induce a state that some have called “functionally equivalent to brainstem death”—only to reverse it? This process happens 60,000 times a day in operating rooms across the United States. Yet it remains poorly understood. What happened inside Freddy’s brain, some researchers now think, may be an extreme version of what happens inside any of our brains when we slip into unconsciousness under anesthesia. (Read More)