# How many people have been put out by Ether? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 14, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232 "2015-09-14T18:42:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/21 "2015-09-16T04:19:18Z")
They must have used it on me when I had my tonsils out. The lucid part was seeing a white sheet go over my face while on the table in the OR. The dream (hope it was a dream) was an old fashioned hand drill poking through the sheet. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/22 "2015-09-16T04:37:16Z")
I am 61 and vividly remember my surgery when I was 3 years old. They put a mask over my face and poured that damn shit over it. I had dreams and hallucinations of the Queen of Hearts and the whole card deck. Weird. At least I got all the ice-cream I wanted afterword. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/23 "2015-09-16T20:07:07Z")
I had my tonsils out in 1952, when I was 7, and they used ether. To this day, I still get occasional olfactory flashbacks of the smell. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/24 "2015-09-16T20:12:23Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Dammit, stupid new laptop I got that has a touchpad that I manage to scrape with the base of my thumb all the time, moving the cursor around in the sentence while typing. Usually I end up with one word inside another and it gets flagged as a misspelling, so I notice to fix it. My sympathies. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/25 "2015-09-18T06:43:37Z")
Maybe it was used on children after the IV stuff I first encountered as an adult in 1970. I remember seeing an old otoscope on the wall in an exam room. It had the notation: “Not Approved For Use With Flammable Anesthetics”. It was later that I heard that the ‘starting fluid’ we used to spray in carbs in our clunkers was ether. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/26 "2015-09-18T07:05:48Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Tonsils out three times in the '60s (55 now). All I remember is a really bad taste in the mouth and throat when I woke up. Headache, too. How did they manage to botch the first two times then?? :eek: Me: 1964, tonsillectomy, ether and NIGH NIGHS…icecream upon awakening. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/27 "2015-09-19T03:59:32Z")
Tonsils out in the mid-50s. It was drops on a fine screen or mesh. I was out in seconds. I asked for french fries in recovery - I got ice cream which was a fine second choice. Besides the soreness, I had a wierd metallic taste. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/28 "2015-09-19T04:31:43Z")
Our beloved pet chicken Egghead had to be put down. I used extra strength engine starting fluid, which is 50% industrial ether. Took about 15 minutes for a towel soaked in ether + Egghead in a nice Home Depot bucket with a lid to painlessly drift off to the great chicken coop in the sky. Me, maybe when I had my tonsils out in 1967 ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/29 "2015-09-19T04:41:21Z")
Not put under, but I once took a chemistry class on psychoactive substances and one of the little show and tells was ether vs. chloroform - we were allowed to very carefully sniff each. It was actually a kind of fascinating little exercise. They both had the same general anesthesia effect, but were completely different sensations. One felt like pins and needles in your brain like the sensation after a limb falls asleep, the other was like stuffing your head full of cotton. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/30 "2015-09-19T15:26:19Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > How did they manage to botch the first two times then?? :eek: > > Me: 1964, tonsillectomy, ether and NIGH NIGHS…icecream upon awakening. 😃 I was waiting for someone to ask: Dr. #1 was incompetent, apparently, so of course Mom took me back to him to “get it right this time,” which he didn’t. Different doctor for the third try and it finally worked. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/31 "2015-09-19T17:35:13Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > …prime Tonsillectomy years seem to be 9-16 or so and for people in their 70s and 80s it may not be that rare as my first impression. > > How many people do have an idea what it is like to be “put out by ether?” I had a tonsillectomy at age 5 in 1954 or 1955. The ether mask going over my face is one of my earliest memories. A very brief, gasping cry of protest and then I was out. Thankfully I don’t recall coming to: they tell me I was vey, very thirsty, but could not drink at all for some time, so the Dr. thought (was the local quack who somehow kept his license), because of the incision. Then when I did get a drink it hurt like a bastard and I screamed in agony. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/32 "2015-09-19T18:05:12Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > My tonsillectomy was in 1962. The doc put a cloth pad over my face and dripped ether onto it. I was in some distress, so he kindly arranged the cloth so my nose was outside it (I remember him cutting a hole in it, but I wasn’t a very good observer at the time.) > > Then there was a very clear hallucination of sliding, feet-forward, down a steep slope. Then nothin’ till the recovery room and spitting up a lot of blood (ick.) OMG ! I had my tonsillectomy about 1957 and had hallucination like crazy ! I was sitting in the waiting room and some girl vomited blood all over my dress , I was freaking out . I was round 11 yo at the time. The doctor told my parents it would help me hear better ! WTF! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/33 "2015-09-19T18:09:00Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > My tonsillectomy was in 1962. The doc put a cloth pad over my face and dripped ether onto it. I was in some distress, so he kindly arranged the cloth so my nose was outside it (I remember him cutting a hole in it, but I wasn’t a very good observer at the time.) > > Then there was a very clear hallucination of sliding, feet-forward, down a steep slope. Then nothin’ till the recovery room and spitting up a lot of blood (ick.) Much the same for me (though about 5 years later). Not a pleasant experience - felt like I was being suffocated. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232/34 "2015-09-19T19:42:51Z")
I think I was four or five when I had my tonsils taken out. I remember a plastic mask over my nose and mouth and I remember a sensation of something cold in my throat and a horrible smell. I distinctly remember hearing a tolling bell as I went under and that’s it. I’m seventy five now so the ether experience had to be in 1944-1945. I had my appendix out in 1953 but I don’t remember how they put me under. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-put-out-by-ether/731232.md?page=1)