A hypnotherapist who chose to sedate himself for an operation using his own skill instead of having anaesthetic unnerved surgeons halfway through the procedure, asking: “How’s it going?”
Alex Lenkei had an ankle replacement at Epsom Hospital in Surrey, where consultant orthopaedic surgeon Dominic Neilsen said it was “nerve-racking” making the first incision, adding: “He did amazingly well.
“To be honest, it was just like doing any other operation. Alex went through the process, which took a very short period of time, and he told us he was ready to go ahead. It was then a case of getting on and doing the operation. It sort of went out of my mind that he was awake and able to correspond.
“He made a couple of comments during the operation which obviously reminded us that it was a strange experience. He commented at one point on the noise of the saws and was just asking how it was going. It was very strange.”
Mr Lenkei, 66, from Worthing in West Sussex, is trained in hypnotherapy and said that while he could feel surgeons manipulating his ankle and heard all of the noises, he felt no pain.
He said the operation was his sixth without general anaesthesia, including surgery on his hand, a hernia removal and freeing a trapped nerve near his elbow.
“Most doctors are scared because obviously it is not something that they come across in the medical profession, as such,” he added. “The brain is a very sophisticated computer and if you press the right buttons it will do amazing things.”
