
Patients are choosing hypnosis over anesthesia in Quebec hospitals
By
In her mind, 14-year-old cancer patient Michelle Yaa Henewaa was flying first class on her way to go shopping in downtown Tokyo.
In reality, doctors were puncturing her back to collect spinal fluid at the Montreal Children's Hospital, where she lay on an X-ray table in a dimly lit radiology room.
Yaa Henewaa did not receive any anesthetic for the procedure. Instead, she opted to be hypnotized to manage the pain.
Hypnotist and medical imaging technologist Vicky Fortin snapped her fingers behind Yaa Henewaa's head as she counted down from 10 and described the dreamlike shopping trip in Tokyo, a technique used in hypnosis to help the patient dissociate.
'This trip is coming to an end,' Fortin whispered as doctors wiped blood from the patient's back.
Yaa Henewaa is one of more than 400 patients at the Children's Hospital who have chosen hypnosis over anesthetic, Fortin said. Increasingly in Quebec hospitals, health-care professionals have been offering hypnosis to patients who need alternative pain management.
When Yaa Henewaa's T-cell lymphoma was diagnosed in January 2024, she had a cancerous mass in her chest. The doctors told her anesthesia would be too risky because when her organs relaxed under anesthetic, the mass could press against the airways, making it hard to breathe.
She said she was 'freaked out' the first time she was hypnotized because she still had some awareness of her surroundings during the procedure, which she said wouldn't have been the case were she sedated. Despite the peculiarity of the experience, she was excited to try hypnosis because she 'never believed' it was possible to use it as pain relief in a medical setting 'until they did it.'
'When the needle was going in, I could feel something,' Yaa Henewaa said immediately after the procedure. 'But when (Fortin) continued to talk, I was lost again (in a trance).'
Hypnosis is an ancient technique dating back thousands of years and has been studied by European physicians since the 18th century, according to a 2024 medical journal article.
Hospitals across Quebec started researching hypnosis as a pain management alternative in the 1990s, according to David Ogez, a clinical psychologist who trains hypnotherapists through the Société Québécoise d'Hypnose (SQH). Its use as a substitute for anesthesia in Quebec hospitals has become increasingly common over the last 10 years, particularly after the Children's Hospital medical-imaging department participated in a hypnotherapy pilot project in 2019, Fortin said.
'We need to learn that pain is not zero or 100; it's somewhere in between sometimes, and we don't need to feel nothing to be able to go through a procedure and be comfortable,' Fortin said, adding that hypnosis can spare a patient the potential risk that comes with general anesthesia.
The idea for the pilot project came from a medical conference in France, Fortin explained, where a McGill University Health Centre staffer attended a panel on hypnosis in medical imaging.
Ogez said medical hypnotherapy is already common in Europe, particularly France and Belgium. Medical hypnosis research is vibrant in Quebec, too, he said, and the SQH has been researching the subject since the mid-20th century. Ogez has been training health-care practitioners across the province to become hypnotherapists, including in Gaspé, Sherbrooke and Quebec City.
Hypnosis is used for pain management for 'surface level' medical procedures, said Ogez, such as colonoscopies, biopsies, dental work, needlework and catheter insertions. It's not used for major operations like open heart surgery, but Ogez said hypnosis is a useful tool for pain management during small yet painful procedures.
Ahead of the procedure, the patient chooses somewhere they would like to 'travel' during their trance, Fortin explained. Yaa Henewaa chose shopping in Tokyo; another teenage cancer patient, Sofia Pezet, said she had chosen 'a day at school' or 'soccer practice' as her destinations, because she has been absent from both since her non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis two months ago.
The hypnotherapist then asks the patient to focus on something like their breathing, the sound of the hypnotist's voice or their fingers moving from side to side.
Then they count down from 10, at each step cueing the patient to deepen their relaxation before the hypnotist begins describing their trip.
Fortin said one trick is to engage all the patient's senses, which makes the story more lifelike.
'She can walk and she feels the floor, the movement and then the sounds of the car in the street and the smell of the food,' Fortin explained after the procedure.
She said it was helpful that Yaa Henewaa chose a story involving an airplane.
'The plane is a good tool to do a dissociation. You leave everything behind and you fly away,' Fortin said. 'The more you will dissociate the patient from their body in the story, the deeper they will go into trance, and the less they feel.'
In order for hypnosis to work, the patient also must be willing and open to getting hypnotized. Fortin said anyone can be hypnotized, but Ogez emphasized that kids are strong candidates.
'It's easy for children because they have a lot of creativity' and imagination, he said.
'We tell them a story, they get right into it. With adults, on the other hand, we need to distract their rationality a little more,' he said.
The patient also must be older than eight or the medical team might determine that the patient should not be put in an 'altered state' because of other confounding factors, said MUHC child life specialist Anna Paliotti, who also performs hypnosis at the Children's Hospital.
Anyone can be a hypnotist, Fortin said. Being a doctor isn't a prerequisite — all that's needed is to go through a 60-hour training course, learn the basic techniques of hypnosis, and practise.
Many patients are hypnotized because sedation is too dangerous. But for some it's a preference.
When Yaa Henewaa was hypnotized in March, the cancerous mass in her chest was much smaller than it was during her initial diagnosis. She has received anesthetic several times over the last year, having gone to the hospital at least twice a month since early 2024.
She chose to be hypnotized again in part because she wouldn't have to face the side-effects of anesthetic, including drowsiness and numbness. After waking up from the spinal tap, she said she felt 'pretty normal.'
'The aftermath is pretty cool because with the anesthesia sometimes I feel dizzy and stuff for almost my whole way home,' she said. 'This one is OK.'
Leora Schertzer
montrealgazette
Leora Schertzer is a reporter at the Montreal Gazette who thrives on the chase. Whether it's making a documentary about sewage or investigating a Nazi gold scandal, it's the novelty and adrenaline that keep her in this challenging industry. Send her tips at lschertzer@postmedia.com.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Global News
a day ago
- Global News
From tree cover to green roofs, how are cities fighting extreme heat?
As a heat wave grips parts of Ontario amid a scorching summer, some Canadian cities have been trying new techniques to try to tackle extreme heat, which can quickly turn deadly. A Statistics Canada study last year showed there were roughly 670 deaths between 2000 and 2020 attributable to extreme heat events in 12 Canadian cities. In 2021, a heat dome in British Columbia killed an estimated 619 people in one week. And this week, temperatures in parts of Ontario are set to feel like the mid-40s C — and cities can feel the heat keenly due to how they're built, experts say. 'The surfaces in the cities are such that they absorb more heat and that causes the entire environment to become hotter and the temperature rises as well,' said Sandeep Agrawal, a professor at the University of Alberta's School of Urban and Regional Planning. Story continues below advertisement It's due to the 'urban heat island effect,' which can make a city one to three degrees hotter than the surrounding area during the day and warmer at night, according to decades of urban studies. Among the reasons are glassy or concrete skyscrapers that absorb a lot of heat during the day and take longer to cool down at night. James Voogt, a Western University professor of geography and environment, said heat is a top 'weather hazard.' 'Our ability to physiologically respond to those is relatively slow,' he said. From increasing tree cover to installing 'green' roofs, here's how some Canadian cities have been trying new techniques to try to tackle extreme heat. What's been done to cool cities down so far? A study by the European Commission in 2023 found that increasing tree coverage to 30 per cent in European cities could lower temperatures by an average 0.4 C, with a maximum effect of 5.9 C in some areas, avoiding 2,644 premature deaths. Story continues below advertisement Planting more trees is one approach some Canadian cities are using. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Toronto plans to increase the number of trees covering streets to 40 per cent canopy cover by 2050 by planting about 120,000 trees a year. 'So you want to make use of strategic planting of trees to try to take advantage of the fact that a tree cools by shading a surface and a tree cools by evapo-transpiring water,' Voogt said. 'So if you strategically locate your tree well, you can get maximum benefit.' In May, Vancouver approved an update to its urban forest strategy with a goal of covering 30 per cent of the city with tree canopy by 2050. 1:55 'Wet-bulb' temperatures: What are they and why can they be so deadly? Trees take time to grow, but they can still benefit cities in the long term, said Sara Barron, program director for the Master of Urban Forestry Leadership Program at the University of British Columbia. Story continues below advertisement 'That immediate impact, it's not going to help maybe with next year's heat wave, but we know climate change is a shift that's going to be happening for years,' she said. Voogt cautioned that it may be difficult to just dig up areas of downtown Toronto to plant trees, but green roofs are an alternative. The Urban Land Institute said green roofs replace dark surfaces with soil and vegetation, noting that the 'greening' of five per cent of Toronto's area lowered citywide temperatures by an estimated 1.5 to two degrees. Toronto implemented a green roof bylaw in 2009, requiring new commercial and industrial developments of more than 2,000 square metres to incorporate them. Other cities have also taken steps, including Saskatoon, which offers a stormwater credit for commercial buildings with green roofs, and Port Coquitlam, B.C., which fast-tracks development applications that incorporate green roofs. There are also other techniques cities are using outside of Canada. The Spanish city of Murcia implemented 61 measures to adapt to extreme heat, including resurfacing dark asphalt roads with lighter-coloured materials to reflect sunlight, with Dallas doing something similar by installing reflective pavement. The Texas city has also required new buildings to use materials that reflect solar heat on at least 75 per cent of the surface or have 50 per cent of the roof covered by vegetation. Story continues below advertisement Still more to do, experts say While some cities have taken steps, Agrawal said 'better design' is needed. 'So incorporating more vegetation, vegetation cover and tree canopies, (and) permeable material within the built environment I think would lead to a more sort of sustainable and cooler environment than the current way of doing it, where it's sort of a patchwork of things being done,' Agrawal said. Barron noted changes like using lighter material for roads to lower heat absorption and adding water where you can, such as water fountains, can make a difference. 1:59 'Extremes you never want to be at': As temperatures spike, so do health hazards Using misting systems can also help with cooling, which she said has been used in places like Australia. The systems are set up to spray a mist of water around an area, or to let people walk through them to cool down. Story continues below advertisement Voogt said city planning can also improve how it handles heat, though he said that is a longer-term solution. 'So changing the form of the city, the way it's laid out, how the buildings are spaced, that's longer term, right, because you don't change the buildings that often,' he said. 'What we have to do is start thinking about cities that are a little bit more optimized in terms of the climate they're embedded in.'


Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Outdoor workers demand protection as cruel heat bakes southern Europe
Cruel heat is baking southern Europe as the continent slips deeper into summer. In homes and offices, air conditioning is sweet relief. But under the scorching sun, outdoor labor can be grueling, brutal, occasionally even deadly. A street sweeper died in Barcelona during a heat wave last month and, according to a labor union, 12 other city cleaners have suffered heatstroke since. Some of Europe's powerful unions are pushing for tougher regulations to protect the aging workforce from climate change on the world's fastest-warming continent. Cleaning the hot streets Hundreds of street cleaners and concerned citizens marched through downtown Barcelona last week to protest the death of Montse Aguilar, a 51-year-old street cleaner who worked even as the city's temperatures hit a June record. Fellow street sweeper Antonia Rodríguez said at the protest that blistering summers have made her work 'unbearable.' 'I have been doing this job for 23 years and each year the heat is worse,' said Rodríguez, 56. 'Something has to be done.' Extreme heat has fueled more than 1,000 excess deaths in Spain so far in June and July, according to the Carlos III Health Institute. 'Climate change is, above all, playing a role in extreme weather events like the heat waves we are experiencing, and is having a big impact in our country,' said Diana Gómez, who heads the institute's daily mortality observatory. Even before the march, Barcelona's City Hall issued new rules requiring the four companies contracted to clean its streets to give workers uniforms made of breathable material, a hat and sun cream. When temperatures reach 34 C (93 F), street cleaners now must have hourly water breaks and routes that allow time in the shade. Cleaning work will be suspended when temperatures hit 40 C (104 F). Protesters said none of the clothing changes have been put into effect and workers are punished for allegedly slacking in the heat. They said supervisors would sanction workers when they took breaks or slowed down. Workers marched behind a banner reading 'Extreme Heat Is Also Workplace Violence!' and demanded better summer clothing and more breaks during the sweltering summers. They complained that they have to buy their own water. FCC Medio Ambiente, the company that employed the deceased worker, declined to comment on the protesters' complaints. In a previous statement, it offered its condolences to Aguilar's family and said that it trains its staff to work in hot weather. Emergency measures and a Greek cook In Greece, regulations for outdoor labor such as construction work and food delivery includes mandatory breaks. Employers are also advised — but not mandated — to adjust shifts to keep workers out of the midday sun. Greece requires heat-safety inspections during hotter months but the country's largest labor union, the GSEE, is calling for year-round monitoring. European labor unions and the United Nations' International Labor Organization are also pushing for a more coordinated international approach to handling the impact of rising temperatures on workers. 'Heat stress is an invisible killer,' the ILO said in a report last year on how heat hurts workers. It called for countries to increase worker heat protections, saying Europe and Central Asia have experienced the largest spike in excessive worker heat exposure this century. In Athens, grill cook Thomas Siamandas shaves meat from a spit in the threshold of the famed Bairaktaris Restaurant. He is out of the sun, but the 38 C (100.4 F) temperature recorded on July 16 was even tougher to endure while standing in front of souvlaki burners. Grill cooks step into air-conditioned rooms when possible and always keep water within reach. Working with a fan pointed at his feet, the 32-year-old said staying cool means knowing when to take a break, before the heat overwhelms you. 'It's tough, but we take precautions: We sit down when we can, take frequent breaks and stay hydrated. We drink plenty of water — really a lot,' said Siamandas, who has worked at the restaurant for eight years. 'You have to find a way to adjust to the conditions.' The blazing sun in Rome Massimo De Filippis spends hours in the blazing sun each day sharing the history of vestal virgins, dueling gladiators and powerful emperors as tourists shuffle through Rome's Colosseum and Forum. 'Honestly, it is tough. I am not going to lie,' the 45-year-old De Filippis said as he wiped sweat from his face. 'Many times it is actually dangerous to go into the Roman Forum between noon and 3:30 p.m.' At midday on July 22, he led his group down the Forum's Via Sacra, the central road in ancient Rome. They paused at a fountain to rinse their faces and fill their bottles. Dehydrated tourists often pass out here in the summer heat, said Francesca Duimich, who represents 300 Roman tour guides in Italy's national federation, Federagit. 'The Forum is a pit; There is no shade, there is no wind,' Duimich said. 'Being there at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. in the summer heat means you will feel unwell.' This year, guides have bombarded her with complaints about the heat. In recent weeks, Federagit requested that the state's Colosseum Archaeological Park, which oversees the Forum, open an hour earlier so tours can get a jump-start before the heat becomes punishing. The request has been to no avail, so far. The park's press office said that administrators are working to move the opening up by 30 minutes and will soon schedule visits after sunset. ___ Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain, Gatopoulos from Athens and Thomas from Rome.


Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
The US fertility rate reached a new low in 2024, CDC data shows
NEW YORK (AP) — The fertility rate in the U.S. dropped to an all-time low in 2024 with less than 1.6 kids per woman, new federal data released Thursday shows. The U.S. was once among only a few developed countries with a rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace itself — about 2.1 kids per woman. But it has been sliding in America for close to two decades as more women are waiting longer to have children or never taking that step at all. The new statistic is on par with fertility rates in western European countries, according to World Bank data. Alarmed by recent drops, the Trump administration has taken steps to increase falling birth rates, like issuing an executive order meant to expand access to and reduce costs of in vitro fertilization and backing the idea of 'baby bonuses' that might encourage more couples to have kids. But there's no reason to be alarmed, according to Leslie Root, a University of Colorado Boulder researcher focused on fertility and population policy. 'We're seeing this as part of an ongoing process of fertility delay. We know that the U.S. population is still growing, and we still have a natural increase — more births than deaths,' she said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the statistic for the total fertility rate with updated birth data for 2024. In the early 1960s, the U.S. total fertility rate was around 3.5, but plummeted to 1.7 by 1976 after the Baby Boom ended. It gradually rose to 2.1 in 2007 before falling again, aside from a 2014 uptick. The rate in 2023 was 1.621, and inched down in 2024 to 1.599, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Birth rates are generally declining for women in most age groups — and that doesn't seem likely to change in the near future, said Karen Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. People are marrying later and also worried about their ability to have the money, health insurance and other resources needed to raise children in a stable environment. 'Worry is not a good moment to have kids,' and that's why birth rates in most age groups are not improving, she said. Asked about birth-promoting measures outlined by the Trump administration, Guzzo said they don't tackle larger needs like parental leave and affordable child care. 'The things that they are doing are really symbolic and not likely to budge things for real Americans,' she said. Increase in births in new data The CDC's new report, which is based on a more complete review of birth certificates than provisional data released earlier this year, also showed a 1% increase in births — about 33,000 more — last year compared to the prior year. That brought the yearly national total to just over 3.6 million babies born. But this is different: The provisional data indicated birth rate increases last year for women in their late 20s and 30s. However, the new report found birth rate declines for women in their 20s and early 30s, and no change for women in their late 30s. What happened? CDC officials said it was due to recalculations stemming from a change in the U.S. Census population estimates used to compute the birth rate. That's plausible, Root said. As the total population of women of childbearing age grew due to immigration, it offset small increases in births to women in those age groups, she said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.