Woman describes waking up during procedure performed by same Tampa doctor now on probation: 'There's no peace'

Patient speaks about waking up mid-procedure

FOX 13’s Aaron Mesmer spoke with a woman who says she woke up during a procedure in 2018, performed by the same Tampa doctor facing similar accusations with another patient.

TAMPA, Fla. - A former patient of a Tampa gastroenterologist came forward Friday to discuss waking up during a procedure, in a story similar to the one that landed the doctor in hot water with the state.

Ingrid Rafael said she needed a colonoscopy and endoscopy in 2018 and went to Dr. Ishwari Prasad at the Ambulatory Surgery Center in Tampa.

Rafael believes the anesthesia was improperly administered and, sometime during the procedure, she woke up.

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"I was a little panicky because I couldn't move. And I'm fully aware of what's going on. I can hear everything that's going on around me. And I can actually see the doctor," she explained. "I just panicked because mostly I couldn't move. And the pain, the pain is what really got to me."

Rafael told FOX 13 the trauma she experienced really hits her when she has other procedures scheduled that involve anesthesia.

"I feel like I'm going to wake up from every single procedure I have done now, since there's no peace," she said.

She said she wishes she reported the incident because, six years later, Prasad is now on probation following a Florida Department of Health investigation.

According to the complaint, Prasad wasn't wearing his hearing aids while performing a colonoscopy in June 2023, also at the Ambulatory Surgery Center, and a patient who wasn't fully sedated began yelling.

The report claims the doctor couldn't hear the patient and the surgical team couldn't communicate with Prasad.

"When I saw the caption, I was like, 'oh no.' And then when I saw his name, I was like, 'oh no,'" Rafael said.

In two emails to FOX 13, Prasad first claimed the report was false. He then appeared to blame the anesthesiologist and other staff, writing, "patient was sedated by [the] anesthesiologist, also patient was observed closely by CRNA," or a certified registered nurse anesthetist. Prasad claims he stopped advancing the colonoscopy scope when the patient woke up, replaced the IV line and completed the procedure after the patient was sedated again.

FOX 13 reached out to the Ambulatory Surgery Center on Thursday and Friday, but the center hasn't responded to the requests for comment.

Rafael has some thoughts about Prasad's explanation.

"I understand that it's not necessarily just the doctor. But you know, he's the one in charge at the end of the day," she said, adding she's not sure if this doctor should be in charge of these types of procedures anymore. "What really angers me mostly is that he is not necessarily recognizing where he went wrong."

In the Florida Department of Health complaint, Prasad is also accused of allowing an unlicensed surgical tech to perform parts of two procedures.

As part of his probation, handed down by the Florida Board of Medicine earlier this month, Prasad can no longer conduct solo procedures until he's cleared by a state-approved doctor.

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