01/24/2022

Friends of Franz Podcast S1 E6: Anesthesiology with Dr. Gelerie Stenbakken

At the height of the pandemic, anesthesiologists have stood on the front lines with the heightened need for intubations in response to deterioration in patients' oxygenation. What was once thought of as solely the behind-the-scene brain during surgeries to keep patients safely asleep in the operating room, they truly have shown the pertinence of the field in every corner of the hospital during the darkest of days. But still, so many questions from the public envelope the world of anesthesia. Is anesthesia safe? Can anesthesia cause memory loss? What if one wakes up during surgery? And better yet, what if one does not wake up after surgery?

Our guest today is Dr. Gelerie Stenbakken who stands as a board-certified anesthesiologist in Fort Collins, CO for almost two decades. From the detours in her medical journey that led her to a worldview of who she believes are "the right people" who should be going into medicine, to recounting a Grey's Anatomy-like experience in the hospital, to her take on the controversial topic of expanding CRNA autonomy in the world of anesthesia, to how the world of anesthesia changed during the 2020 biological cataclysm, and to tackling every mystified fear the public may have about anesthesia, we go on an anesthetic adventure based on scientific data. Now, let's all count down together. 10...9...8...7...Zzzz.