Movies make us believe chloroform knocks people out immediately. I did my own research and I realized that’s not true. I’m fact, it takes few minutes for chloroform to take effect. Is this true?
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Movies make us believe chloroform knocks people out immediately. I did my own research and I realized that’s not true. I’m fact, it takes few minutes for chloroform to take effect. Is this true?
Lol…Nope. It would take several minutes at least. The effects are not like a movie suggests. It doesn’t simply knock you out, it poisons your body. If you wake up again, you won’t rapidly return to normal. You’re going to be very ill.
The chloroform must first be inhaled, then it must travel to the heart and fraction of that will be pumped to the brain. A sufficient quantity of cholorform must get to the brain for it to exert its anesthetic effect. This will generally take several minutes, though it can be a bit faster with good equipment and a cooperative patient. An unskilled person using a rag on someone who is uncooperative is highly unlikely to be effective.
Chloroform does work like we see in movies in the sense that if you soak a rag and cover a persons nose and mouth with it they will lose consciousness within a minute, or four or five deep breaths. What they don’t show you is a lay person doing that will almost certainly kill the person because they won’t manage the airway properly. When you lose consciousness like this your airway collapses and fills with secretions. That’s why we use breathing tubes and medications in the operating room to keep you breathing safely.
Furthermore, nobody uses chloroform any more. We have much better drugs now. Chloroform is flammable, causes lots of nausea, and is slower to wake up from. Nowadays we use sevoflorane and desflurane. Both are halogenated ether derivatives.