For what it’s worth, I have had two open heart surgeries and neither was as described above. Must have different doctors in Oklahoma. My memory of waking up after the first one, after the tube down my throat was taken out, was coughing out crap, and then the most wonderous thing in the world: Fresh, clean air to my brain, perhaps the first in a couple years (my heart valves had been failing for a while). I can not adequately describe the feeling. My doctor, somewhat sarcastic at best, remarked that he was looking forward to talking to me now that my brain was getting an adequate supply of oxygen. The second, a few years later, after I had somehow blown out the first valve (perhaps lifting really heavy weights wasn’t such a good idea), was much more challenging for the doctors, but I floated along in and out of unconciousness, and remember moments of great compassion and kindness by the staff. Again, different place, different people.