Big Ang Stage Four Cancer Story & Her Fight to Stay Alive | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 114 | Full Episode
Big Ange, diagnosed with stage four lung and brain cancer in December 2015 after three surgeries—including a 2013 left lung removal—fights for survival with immunotherapy, despite a 30% chance. Her lifelong smoking habit led to throat cancer, but her Staten Island family fuels her resilience. Meanwhile, Dr. David Ring’s honest admission of a wrong-hand surgery error, caused by distractions and missed safety checks, underscores how transparency in medicine saves lives, mirroring Trevor’s heart transplant survival through donor trust. Small oversights—like unmarked surgical sites or miscommunication—can have devastating consequences, proving vigilance and honesty are critical in both cancer care and life-saving procedures. [Automatically generated summary]
So bizarre, a 13-inch piece of metal left behind by mistake after surgery.
Coming up next, we'll save lives today.
You guys ready to get healthy?
Very special hour.
We start with an extremely strong woman.
She's a mother, a grandmother, and one of reality television's biggest personalities.
Now, she's in the fight, in fact, the biggest fight of her life.
It's for her health.
Today, we have an exclusive first interview with Angela Royola.
You know her as Big Ange from the hit reality show Mob Wives, but her battle with cancer has changed her life forever.
She's allowing us and our cameras to follow her through her treatment.
And she gives us an intimate look at all that she's going through.
Then, medical mistakes that you have to see to believe.
You're going to meet a man who went in for surgery and came out with a 13-inch metal tool in his stomach.
And we're going to tell you how to avoid becoming a victim of a similar medical mistake.
But let's get started.
We begin with Mob Wives star Angela Big Ange Rayola, who is bravely allowing us to follow her medical journey.
With her enormous personality and huge sense of humor, Big Ange Rayola has always lived larger than life.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, this niece of a now-deceased captain of the Genovese crime family has always had it her way.
Partying with the mob, dating gangsters, managing watering holes like the drunken monkey bar in Staten Island, and finally rising to stardom in the reality TV series Mob Wives.
But in March of 2015, life took a tough turn for the 55-year-old mother of two.
A lifelong smoker, Angela was diagnosed with throat cancer.
And then more bad news, cancer in her left lung.
After undergoing three surgeries, she was pronounced cancer-free in October.
But her joy was short-lived when in December, the cancer returned.
This time in her brain, right lung, and other parts of her body.
Angela's medical teams are fighting the cancer with radiation and chemotherapy.
Through it all, Big Ange keeps smiling as she vows to stay upbeat, fight on, and continue to have it her way.
Big Ange, come on out!
Thank you for coming.
Oh my goodness.
Big Ange's Smile00:14:54
Get to see you in person.
Oh, and you're very handsome.
Well, since we're going to get close, we're going to try to call you Big Ange or Angela.
What are your friends?
Angela.
Angela.
Oh, they call me Grandma, Ma, or Angela.
Well, I can't call you Grandma.
I like Angela.
Angela.
Angela.
And I'll call you handsome.
Well, you're very kind.
I love this.
It's already good.
You're going through a lot, which I appreciate you talking with us about.
I was starting to cry when I was watching it out there just now.
Why?
Because it's shocking what happened.
First, I thought I was cancer-free, and I was going to have a big celebration, and I had a party, and then a month later, I had a stage four.
It's over like that.
The ups and downs.
Well, life is always about ups and downs.
You know, we don't always control the cards we're dealt.
We get to play them.
You want to talk about it a little bit?
Yeah.
So, physically, just today, this moment, are you okay?
Sometimes.
When you're not okay, what are you feeling?
Depressed.
It's all right.
you take your time so just in case Okay.
They're clean.
Thank you.
You let me know when you're ready.
All right.
I'm ready.
You're a strong woman, you really are.
I don't know.
Sometimes I feel like, oh, I'm going to be fine.
And sometimes I just don't think I am.
I've pledged my life to giving people hope, which isn't always giving them what they want or the best result they might have imagined.
It's about helping them make sense of what they're going through.
I can't make sense of this.
Well, that's why we're here.
One there was perfectly fine.
Thinking I had strep throat.
The next thing I know, I have stage two throat cancer.
Okay, we remove it.
Let's start there for a second.
You have this throat cancer, which is not a small deal.
You have a big 10-hour operation against it.
Two times.
Twice.
Bad dude.
First, they did the left side and then they did the right side.
All right, so the throat cancer is out.
Yes.
When you first heard the word cancer.
I thought that was it.
I was done.
I said, oh, cancer, I'm going to die.
Everybody dies from cancer.
You know, you hear cancer right away.
You think you're going to die.
But then they did the surgery 10 hours on April, a week after I was diagnosed, one week.
It was like right away.
This is the last day.
I was blocking my airway.
They couldn't even intubate me because the tumor was so big.
It took two hours for them to get the pipe down.
Ooh, that's precarious.
And I was up.
You were awake the whole time?
When they were trying to do that.
It was the worst.
Then 10 hours, they removed all the lymph nodes and the tumor that one time.
Then two months later, they gave me the second surgery and did the left side and removed all the lymph nodes.
And then they said I had no cancer.
So let's go back.
Let's just stay.
And this is for one second.
That's part of the way you make sense of stuff is to break it up a little bit.
I understand that when you were diagnosed, you also did something that's a big deal.
You stopped smoking.
The first, as soon as I went, March 30th, they said you have throat cancer.
I left through the pack of cigarettes right in Colombian garbage pail outside.
You're not smoked, don't smoke.
It's not like this.
I just depressed this.
And did your doctors think the cigarettes had caused your throat cancer?
Positively.
I was smoking for 40 years.
Is that one of the reasons that you wanted to speak up and be public in a very difficult battle?
Yes, I think whoever smokes should quit.
And if they didn't start, don't start.
So this big tumor, the size of a cantaloupe from what you're describing, gets...
It was just like this.
All right.
This way.
So it was about the size of a lemon.
Yeah, but it was that shape.
And it was blocking your airway.
So that comes out.
There's no chemotherapy.
No, they say that.
Well, the lymph nodes are clear.
Right, so you're sort of high-fiving at this point.
You're through.
I have to scarf from ear to ear.
That's why you're wearing the scarf, I gather.
Yes.
So you're through this neck dancer, which is sort of scary.
I'm through the neck next.
A few months later, they find this mass in your left lung.
Yeah.
They say that stage one, lung cancer, but we have to remove it right away.
I'm like, what's going on?
A week later, I'm back in another operating room.
September, three operations back to back.
And they remove half of the left lung.
They say, we can't take any chances.
And we're going to take the lymph nodes.
Okay.
October 2nd, that was.
They say you're cancer-free.
You beat it twice.
What's the odds?
I'm like, oh, God, I'm a lucky person.
I say, okay, celebrate and no cancer.
Yeah.
Have a big birthday party, cancer-free.
Then all of a sudden, you have to go back for the third-month checkup.
So I go and I go and I'm just sitting there and everybody's acting weird.
I'm like, they're usually so friendly.
I always tell the doctor, what are you doing, handsome?
Because he is very handsome.
Because everyone's handsome.
Now I understand.
He is.
He's like you, young, good looking.
And he's not acting like his friendly self.
I was like, he goes, well, we have to wait for Dr. Michat to come.
And I'm like, something's up over here.
And he felt bad, I guess.
He didn't want to tell me that now they found stage four, lung and brain cancer.
I guess I was by myself.
They didn't know how to tell me.
I was completely devastated.
I was like, I couldn't hear what they were saying.
I couldn't even understand.
I feel like I was death.
You have stage four, brain cancer, and lung.
We don't know how this happened.
I'm like, I can't hear.
I just can't even hear this.
Did they give you a prognosis?
No, they said that you have to, they're like, we're sorry, we don't know, but now you have to go to another doctor.
We're like, you have to find a brain doctor, a lungs, oncology, a chemistry.
I was like, oh, this is going too fast for me.
Now I'm just hysterical.
I felt like I couldn't hear anything.
Now that you processed it a little bit, do you have any idea of what they're predicting is going to happen to you?
Well, now they told me that it's 30% chance.
I'm like, I have six grandchildren.
I just had one Tuesday, a new granddaughter.
Congratulations.
Came home today.
Well, that's my other one.
The new one came home today.
I mean, I have, my kids are very needy.
They need me.
That's me.
So 30% chance of surviving.
Yeah.
And now, I'm like, I can't even believe what I'm hearing.
And now I started the chemo, and I already had the radiation on the brain.
And already I got four big bull spots.
All in four weeks.
All this is happening.
You've already sort of said it, but I understand it.
It's coming so fast you can't keep up.
What are you doing to keep yourself in a place where you can cope with this cancer?
I stay positive.
I try to stay positive.
I'd look at my kids and my grandchildren, and I know how much they need me.
My kids, my kids.
My daughter lives with me with her kids and her husband.
So very close to all my grandchildren.
My son's kids always sleep over.
Tell you what, we're going to give you a little break.
This has been a lot.
I've got a lot of things I want to talk to you about, and I want to try to help as much as I can.
Okay.
All right, when we come back, Angela's going to allow our cameras to follow her to chemotherapy, and she's going to find out the latest developments about her health.
She's going to tell us all about it.
That's next.
Coming up next, Angela shares her more intimate details of her battle with cancer, how she's coping with a recent setback, and what she's doing to stay positive as she fights for her life.
She's destroying me.
Coming up.
The Columbine shooter's mother.
Many say you're the mother of a killer.
Is that fair?
Sue Klebold.
Were you ever scared of Dylan?
Her biggest regret.
Do you think you're a good mother to Dylan?
Could she have prevented the Columbine tragedy?
Something went wrong in his thinking.
Sue Klebold, what you haven't heard.
If Dylan was sitting in my seat, what would you want him to hear?
All new oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back with Mob Wives star Angela Big Ang Raiola, who is bravely sharing the most intimate details of her battle with cancer.
She's allowing us to follow her through her treatments, which recently has included both radiation and chemotherapy.
Today I'm going to chemo.
It's my fourth round of chemo.
I'm definitely not looking forward to it.
There's my sister Janine.
She comes with me every time.
We stick together like Valcrow.
Family support.
That's what we need.
So, what are we doing today?
I'm going to access your port, draw some blood, and then we'll go see Doctor.
I hate the thought of this.
I can't do this.
I love what I see with the doctors and the nurses, how they treat us.
I think they're doing the right thing.
I feel confident.
Every time we come for the chemo, I'm thinking, is this the time that chemo is going to get that cancer and you know it's going to be done?
Is this the time?
Maybe I'm living in a fantasy land.
Just before beginning the chemotherapy, Angela went to meet with her doctor.
The consultation was less than encouraging.
When I saw the doctor an hour ago, he didn't like the way I was breathing.
He made me go take a CAT scan on my chest.
And then when the results came back, I don't think he liked them too much.
He actually thinks that the tumor is getting bigger instead of smaller.
Chemo is supposed to be shrinking it instead, it's growing.
I don't know what's going on anymore.
I mean, once you get diagnosed with stage four brain and lung cancer, I don't think there's much more that could affect you after that.
So how are you coping with news of this?
Now this hits me.
Oh, God, it just never ends.
This has been a year of.
Every day it's just something worse.
Instead of it getting better, it's getting worse.
We've been talking to your physicians.
Oh.
Just trying to piece it together and do what we can to chip in.
And I understand they're going to switch you from chemotherapy, from chemicals, to immunotherapy.
Yes.
Do you know much about that?
No.
He just said that he thinks it's going to be better for me.
They just called me today and told me that I'm going to have it on Tuesday.
Let's talk about this a little bit.
Your journey is going to take you to places most people never travel.
I don't want to travel there.
I know you don't want to travel there, but you're going there.
I'm there.
And some of these are incredibly sophisticated, brand new, spanking new approaches to cancer.
And the idea here is that instead of using toxic chemicals that destroy both your own cells and the cancer, maybe a more sophisticated way would be to wake up your immune system so it can attack the cancer for you, because it should be doing that anyway.
I know I don't like that other one.
It gives you rashes.
Look what it does to your skin.
Your face sores all over you.
Look at me.
When I put the cream every day, sores in your mouth, so your hair falls out, sores all over your face.
It's destroying me.
I can't believe what I look like.
Well, I think you're a very beautiful woman, but we'll talk about that later.
You have got the biggest ally you're going to need, and we're going to bring some more allies to your help.
So whatever we want to stick around when we come back, the biggest source of hope for Angela, she's already mentioned it already, and to all of us, I'm going to emphasize it.
It's her strong family.
We're going to see their love in action.
Stay with us.
What's that next to Grandma?
It's your best.
This is yours.
Coming up next, Angela's larger-than-life family speaks out.
Family all together is what's going to get her through this.
Why they're her strongest weapon while battling this cancer.
And the surprising news Angela shares about another family member, coming up next.
It's a hard time conversation with Angela Royola, better known as Big Ange, but I'm allowed to call her Angela.
And she's talking about her very serious battle with cancer.
So, besides your medical team, you have a very important weapon.
It's actually the most important weapon any family has.
Each other.
Oh, I have a big family.
And how are they chipping and how they help it?
Oh, they're very supportive.
They've always been.
If it wasn't for them, how would I get through this?
My brother-in-law takes me all the time with my sister.
They're right here, by the way.
They're all in the front row here.
They take me to all my doctors.
I mean, they have seven kids.
They got businesses.
My sister has two baby stores.
My brother-in-law has his own company, seven kids.
They don't have, you know, all this time to help me, and they do.
I'm very grateful.
Now, I'm going to talk to your family, but I just want to clear one issue if we can.
I know that you're having some issues with your husband.
Family Support Matters00:02:36
Yeah.
You know what?
I felt he never stepped up to the plate, so I was done with it.
I feel now it's too late, but I'd rather be by myself.
I've been taking care of everything until we're married to my movie.
So I'd rather be alone.
And that's what I did.
You're going to be alone.
You want to be with other members of your family.
Yeah, I'll never be alone.
My daughter, my son-in-law, and my three grandchildren that live with me, and they're bullmasters.
Okay.
So, as you said, you're never going to have to worry about being alone.
You're going to find out right now her big family is surrounding her with lots of love and support.
And she knows how a little peek into what a dinner with them might look like.
Angela and many of her family members live in Staten Island, New York.
There, we peeked in on a weekly family get-together.
To me, everything is family.
I grew up in a big family.
I have six grandchildren.
We're always together.
Well, that looks delicious.
Oh, my dad.
Whatever I'm going through, my family's going through too, because they're with me every step of the way.
Oh, yeah.
When I gotta cut my hair short because I knew I was gonna be going bold, my sister went and cut her hair short.
Now that the hair's falling out of there, but I'm already there.
All together is what's going to get her through this.
Because when you have cancer, you need a good support system.
That's why I think if anybody can beat this, it's my mother.
What are you fatigued?
I'm like, one, I feel like somebody ran me over.
It's fatigued, yeah.
With a truck.
My mother right now is going through a lot in her conditions, kind of bringing her down.
She should know how much I love her and how much I need her and how much her grandkids need her.
Listen, my grandchildren are the world to me.
And they need to have their grandmother.
I love my grandma.
She makes us all well.
She is a great cook.
And we all love her.
My mother's the glue of our family.
Without my mother, it's like, you know, everything falls apart.
We're very tight family.
My family wasn't here to support me through all this.
I don't think I could do it.
You're a lucky woman.
You have such a supportive family.
Medical Errors and Anesthesia00:15:12
So here's what we're going to do.
You got your family.
That's something that no one else could give you.
You've took care of that, which is hard.
A lot of families are broken up.
They don't have the support.
And I treasure the fact that you have that.
I'm constantly amazed at our body's ability to fix itself, to recover.
I've been calling folks around.
Some of these folks are, you know, really world-class in what they do.
Others are trying to figure out how to help their patients just a little bit better.
And I want you to meet some of these people.
Okay.
And if you're willing to take the trip that you are on, you say you don't want to go on a voyage, but you're already on it.
Oh, I know, I know.
And that exploration that you're on is going to teach a lot of people about themselves.
You've already made the beautiful argument about why cigarettes are an issue, and you bring it alive in a very different way.
A way I could never do it because I'm not fighting for my life the way you are.
So if you'll take us with you all on this trip, I think it'll help all of us.
Okay, I want to do it.
I love you.
Love you.
Angela.
We'll be right back.
Coming up next, medical mistakes you have to see to believe.
You see that?
That's actually this.
Forgotten medical tools and instruments.
That was the mistake they left behind.
Did this happen to you?
What you should know before and after surgery: the Columbine Shooter's Mother, Sue Kleebold.
Were you ever scared of Dylan?
What you haven't heard?
If Dylan was sitting in my seat, what would you want him to hear?
All new oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Medical mistakes do happen, and sometimes you just have to see it to believe it.
Like the recent cases in the news, we've seen like the patient who had the wrong side of their brain operated on.
It's a big deal.
And this patient, well, they had a pair of surgical scissors left behind them.
Because sort of see the scissors, you don't have to be a radiologist to pick it up.
Or this man who had this piece of metal left in his abdomen by mistake after surgery.
You see that?
That's actually this.
This is actually what came out of the belly.
And this patient, he's here today.
I want you to meet Don Church and his wife, Gayla.
Welcome, don't get officially.
Gayla, how are you?
I'm struck by this.
You had a 13-inch piece of metal left behind.
Did you even realize it was there?
At one point, every day when I wake up and I go to tie my shoes, I go, what is that pain?
Because I could not imagine.
I could imagine leaning forward with this.
Yes.
But what was the original surgery for?
I had a cancer on my colon.
And it was actually, it was 13 inches long.
It was like a bowling mold.
13 pounds.
So it was a big cancer, but still a piece of metal.
Well, that was the mistake they left behind.
So in fact, tell me when you are not cancer-free, I understand.
I am.
But you guys.
So I want to move forward and just talk about the medical error a little bit because you got better despite the medical error, but it shouldn't have happened to begin with.
So here's a scan again.
Everyone look at this.
And this shows that large metallic object just to the right of your spine.
What did doctors say to you when they saw that x-ray?
Well, I got a call from my surgeon after they went in and did a CAP scan.
And he said to me, Don, we made a little bit of a mistake.
We left an instrument in you, and it's kind of like a tongue depressor.
So the next morning.
It's shaped like one, a little bigger.
It is.
The next morning, I went and had an x-ray done myself.
Every doctor and nurse came down the hallway and went, oh my God, what is that?
This guy should be dead.
And I'm standing behind them and thinking, it's going to be another four days before they remove this.
The doctor had told me, when I come back from my vacation, we'll just come on in and we'll take that out free of charge.
That's what he told me.
But when I saw this, I said, yes, it's a tongue depressor for an elephant.
But you know, we're laughing about this, but this is obviously a serious issue.
I mean, I'd be upset.
Gaylord, but what did you think when you saw that x-ray?
Oh, I was so shocked.
But at least I knew now why he was sobbing on the floor.
And I felt so helpless at the time.
Well, I'm sorry you went through that, but I am very happy that it ultimately got taken out, thankfully.
And I'm going to return this little bit of present back to you.
Your tongue depression for the elephant.
We always want to minimize the risk of medical error.
And we want to make sure our patients are safe.
No one goes out and tries to leave instruments behind.
In fact, it's such a common concern that we have all kinds of tactics to deal with them.
So these are typical instruments I would have in my operating room.
I literally would have five times as much.
That's why you have to keep track.
You count all the instruments.
Every one of the scissors gets counted.
Every one of the little medical sponges over here.
See, these are the sponges that were some of the most commonly forgotten items.
We count them before the surgery, and they count them after the surgery, and literally they have their own little bags to make sure we never have a problem.
And if there's a miscount, if we have five sponges going in and four coming out, before you leave the room, across America, we get an x-ray so that patients don't go home with stuff still stuck in them.
It's one of the ways we help, but these are only a few of the ways we try to limit medical errors, which is why when they do happen, it raises some serious questions about how the system is working.
Now, up next, let's talk about a very different kind of medical mistake.
What would you do if you woke up during surgery, in the middle of surgery, paralyzed, watching your doctor cut into you, but unable to scream or let them know?
It's not rare.
It's called anesthesia awareness.
And find out how you could be wide awake during surgery when we come back.
Imagine waking up in the middle of surgery, unable to move or speak, but you can hear and feel everything.
That was the worst pain of my life.
Meet a woman who knows firsthand how you can help prevent this from happening to you, next.
How it's meant to happen.
You go for surgery, they give you an anesthetic, and then you fall asleep.
Hours later, you wake up in the recovery room after it's all done.
But some experts claim up to one in 700 surgeries don't go that way.
It's the next medical mistake you need to be aware of.
It sounds like something out of a horror movie.
Every year, as many as 40,000 people wake up in the middle of surgery.
It's called anesthesia awareness.
And this frightening ordeal happens more often to women than men.
Here's how.
To keep a person asleep during surgery, an anesthesiologist administers a cocktail of medications, often including a paralytic, which leaves the patient completely immobilized.
With anesthesia awareness, the brain wakes up.
The patient can't move or speak, but can hear and sometimes feel everything.
Doctors still don't know exactly what causes this terrifying experience.
But for the traumatized patient, it can mean a lifetime of suffering.
The nightmare for Erin began when she went into surgery to have an ovary removed.
I remember going to sleep right before surgery.
But the next thing I know, I'm waking up to doctors literally slicing me open.
I could hear everything, but even worse, I could feel everything.
It was a searing and burning sensation, and it was the worst pain of my life.
I kept thinking I need to tell somebody I'm awake, but I couldn't move or couldn't speak.
I felt trapped in my own body, almost like I was buried alive.
I began to panic, and I even tried to stop my breathing.
I thought that maybe some type of buzzer or bell would go off and they would know I was awake, but nothing worked.
And all I could hear were voices, but they were muffled, just like I was underwater.
No one had any clue that something was wrong.
The surgery and the pain seemed to go for hours.
And I just kept praying, God, please just knock me out.
Just knock me out.
Let somebody know that this hurts so bad.
It was the most terrifying experience of my life, and I haven't forgotten it, and I don't think I ever will.
So Erin is here.
As a surgeon, it's hard for me to even see that.
Thank you.
You can imagine the pain you were in.
Yeah, it's hard to watch.
You okay?
Yeah, thank you.
So I gather your physical wounds are healed, but how about the emotional scarring?
Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn't really prepared.
I didn't really think this would leave a lasting scarring.
I think when I woke up, I was in just shock.
But as time went on, I found that I was having panic attacks, which was not like me.
And I do remember the first time I went to the dentist after this happened.
They laid me in the back, laid me down, and then you see the big light in front of you.
And I just had a flashback and I just started crying in the dentist chair uncontrollably, which is just not, it's not like me.
And then I got to the point where I couldn't even drive sometimes.
I would just have to pull over because the fear of being out of control and dying was just taking over my life.
So they did finally diagnose me with PTSD, which was a hard, hard diagnosis to take.
Well, how are you doing now?
I'm dealing.
I still have panic attacks.
Mostly, they are at night when I'm sleeping.
I'll wake up in just sheer terror.
What did the doctor say to you when you talked to them about this after the operation?
You know, they did find out that the machine wasn't working, so they had it tested and found out that for about 20 minutes I had very, very tiny amounts of anesthesia compared to what I should have.
And God, it's the only thing that knocked me out because it was a three-hour surgery.
So somehow.
Yeah, it turned out to be a lot more complicated.
So I just believe that he swept in and helped me.
I'm so sorry you went through this.
And I know it's a big battle to get past it, but you keep praying for it.
Thank you so much.
Now, I want to just put this in perspective.
Amazon alone, there's 60,000 patients who go under general anesthesia every day.
Sometimes these problems happen, which is why I wanted to have you on.
Thankfully, for the vast majority of folks, it's just fine.
Anesthesia is safe.
It's safer than driving a car, even flying an airplane.
So I have great confidence with my anesthesiologist colleagues, but I know this happens.
And the big question you should be asking yourself is, how do you make sure you're not one of those folks who have some complications?
I've asked Dr. Gail Barnado, she's an anesthesiologist, to come on the show to show you exactly how to lower your risk.
Thank you very much.
So you just heard this terrifying story.
And we live in fear as physicians that this might happen to one of our patients.
How can patients protect themselves so they don't become a statistic?
Right.
Well, the first thing to do is actually communicate with your anesthesia provider if you have some concerns about anesthesia awareness.
And we want to know if you've had any complications with surgery or anesthesia before or family members had any complications with anesthesia.
Also, we're not being nosy, but we need to know how much you drink on a daily and weekly basis and if you use or abuse any prescription drugs or any type of illicit drugs.
And then of course we need to know about any medications you take and also herbal supplements.
And once we get all of this information, it helps us really be able to complete a nice picture of what a safe, tailored anesthetic would be like for you.
Folks, I've had personal experience here when people are using alcohol or drugs, of course they're embarrassed about it.
They don't want to acknowledge it.
It is life-changing if you don't change, you know, admit this does, because the narcotics won't work anymore if you're taking them on your own.
You actually, your body develops techniques to metabolize them.
It'll run right through what Dr. V gives you.
So this is the one place.
It's confidential.
Just be honest about it.
So you've got other ideas, other tips that anesthesiologists around the country are starting to use.
And patients could even ask for these as a way of ensuring that they're not going to wake up during surgery.
Right.
So in order for us to be able to tailor your anesthetic for you, we need to know more about you.
So that means we want to get a good history in physical.
And as the lovely woman had mentioned, you know, she only got about 5% of the anesthetic.
So we check the machine before we start our day and between each patient.
Then there's also other monitors that we can use once we get into the operating room.
And this is one of them.
It's called a BIS monitor.
Feel free to take that off there.
And in the operating room, we're going to put this on your forehead.
So you're my patient today, Dr. Oz.
And we're going to apply this.
It's just like an EKG would be.
And it snaps into a monitor there that would give us a number.
And by using EEG, it actually tells us how awake or how asleep you are.
So as we're standing here talking, you might be at about a 90, 85.
I feel awake.
You feel awake, good.
But under general anesthesia, the number that we should get from the reading should be about 40 to 60.
And then interestingly, this uses EEG.
There's some really great information and research coming out that's showing us that brain activity and actually like how strong your neural connections are are probably what's really responsible for the amount of anesthesia you need and not just body weight.
And body weight is what we're using today in order to assess how much anesthesia you need.
So that's very interesting and EEG and monitors like this utilize that kind of concept.
Dr. V, thank you very much.
Thank you.
When we come back, we've got a brave doctor who openly admitted to his medical mistake and is now changing the way medical communities are looking at errors to make you safer.
We'll be right back.
Coming up next, he performed surgery, but the wrong one.
When you figured out what had gone wrong, what did you do?
Meet the courageous doctor who came clean.
His important tips and how to avoid becoming a victim of a medical mistake.
Coming up next.
The Columbine shooter's mother, Sue Kleebold.
Were you ever scared of Dylan?
What you haven't heard?
If Dylan was sitting in my seat, what would you want him to hear?
All nuis.
That's coming up tomorrow.
I remember going to sleep right before surgery.
But the next thing I know, I'm waking up to doctors literally slicing me open.
Mistakes in Surgery00:03:00
I could hear everything, but even worse, I could feel everything.
That was Erin who found herself wide awake during a surgery on her abdomen.
It happened due to a medical error.
Doctors are human.
Mistakes are going to happen.
But it's not often that they publicly come forward to admit what went wrong.
But orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Ring did.
Thanks for being here, Dr. Ring.
Thanks for having me.
What was the mistake?
I mixed up the two most common hand surgeries.
I released a nerve at the wrist when I meant to release a tendon going to the finger.
And how did it happen?
I was anchored.
My mind was anchored on the wrist for several reasons.
One was a patient who had a terrible time with the anesthesia that morning and I was just determined to do a great job the next surgery.
And there was probably things that got in the way of my team helping me catch my mistake.
One was we used to mark just the arm, not the surgical site.
Another one is that my patient and I were speaking in Spanish, which excluded the rest of the team.
And probably most importantly, back then, we didn't do the timeout or surgical safety check just prior to incision like we do now.
Those things might have helped catch my mistake.
And when you figured out what had gone wrong, what did you do?
That must have been petrifying.
I was back in my office, dictating the operative note, and I realized I'd made a mistake.
What an awful feeling.
Like I couldn't catch my breath, like the floor had fallen.
I went to the patient.
I got down and knelt down at her level.
I was tearful.
I said, I'm so sorry, I did the wrong procedure.
And I asked her in Spanish if she wanted me to do the correct procedure, and she said, C. C. She says she trusted you to go back and do the operation that she had signed up for.
Yes.
And how did that affect you?
It was a very moving, very difficult time.
You decided to publish, to write an article about what had gone wrong.
That's extraordinary.
It doesn't usually happen.
Why was that important to you?
I want to make sure that I do everything I can to prevent this from happening to anybody else.
So the question then becomes, what can patients do to make sure they can avoid mistakes?
And it's a big question, but it's one that you obviously spent a good part of your time thinking about.
So share a couple tips today, practical tips that folks can use or share with their loved ones to make sure this does not happen anymore.
When it comes to surgery, you want to know your surgeon.
You want to know the surgery you're having.
You want to know where the incision is supposed to go.
And you want to make sure your surgeon marks you so they have to cut through the ink to get the work done.
Did you hear what he said?
Dr. Ring said, you have to cut through the ink.
Trevor's Life-Saving Surgery00:02:47
That's how precise we need you to be.
And you should tell every single person from the person who takes your car and parks it for you to the guard security desk, every single person should know what operation you're having and where it's going to be exactly.
And that's how we prevent these errors from happening, because that way everyone's checking up on you.
I want to applaud you very much, Dr. Ring.
It takes a lot of guts to do what you're doing.
We've made mistakes, all of us have, and we've come forward.
What's important here is that docs are honest with our patients because you know what?
You guys deserve the respect.
You absolutely deserve that respect because without that, we'll never have the trust, the covenant, the precious relationship that doctors and patients have to have for healing to work.
We'll be right back.
Michael Strahan is back.
The last time he was here, he ended up in bed with Oz.
Now, he opens up about his dad's health scare that was a wake-up call for him.
I look back now, it actually changed my life.
Plus, Shannon Doherty is facing her biggest scare yet.
The cancer crisis she never expected.
How she's fighting back all new Oz.
that's coming up on thursday i want to show you a viral video everybody is talking about Take a look at 15-year-old Trevor just moments after waking up from a life-saving heart transplant surgery.
I got to warn you, it's very emotional.
I welled up when I first saw it.
This is exactly the kind of operation that I trained and I do.
Take a look.
So happy.
I know.
I wait so often.
I know, buddy.
I know.
So happy.
Whenever I think, I can breathe again and talk.
You feel good?
You feel good?
I say, oh easy.
You're amazing.
It's amazing.
I never felt so good.
You never felt so good, huh?
You look good, buddy.
You look real good.
That is powerful.
And you see how pink he is?
He says I can breathe again.
That's the power of our organs, especially the heart, to get the blood going the right way.
So we spoke to Trevor's dad.
He said he shared that video that showed the importance of organ donation because he says his son would not be alive today if another family who tragically lost their loved one hadn't chosen to say yes and sign the organ donor box on their driver's license so how are you going to help trevor and how's he doing now well first off he's doing great since his surgery is trevor's dad says he's got a new pep in his step there he is he's gonna be starting school again if you're inspired Inspired by Trevor's story, like I was, there are a couple things you can do.
Obviously, sign that donor box in the back of your driver's license.
The Power of Organ Donation00:00:29
You can go to organdonor.gov to sign your state's organ and tissue registry.
But here's what I really want you to do: we worked with Facebook to come up with this concept that they put up there that's been very successful for a step-by-step guide on how to register through your own Facebook profile.
And if you can't remember how to do it, we got a little video on doctor.com to take you through it.
Just search on your Facebook page, Oregon Donor, and follow the steps there.
Super simple.
Check that box.
Everybody in your family will know that you want to donate your organs.
That's the time you make it clear before something tragic happens.