Astonishing image shows half-done facelift — as patients embrace new awake surgery trend

Caroline Shaw had no idea she would feel an overwhelming urge to use the bathroom in the middle of her facelift. 

“My face was only half done, and they asked if they could take my picture, which they gave me as a souvenir,” the 57-year-old life coach, who splits her time between the Upper East Side and Geneva, Switzerland, told The Post.

Shaw is just one of many patients who are having “awake” surgery instead of going under general anesthesia or IV sedation. With the help of oral sedatives and numbing, while under local anesthesia, patients alternate between dozing off and waking up rather than being fully out or fully awake.

This option allows them to skip most of the time-consuming pre-op medical testing, while avoiding the anxiety and risks of anesthesia, to be able to stroll out immediately post-op, rather than being stuck in an hours-long haze.

Taking the local anesthesia route wasn’t Shaw’s original intention when she scheduled her series of procedures: a face and neck lift, fat transfer to fill out the skin, and a CO2 laser to improve texture.

The New Yorker endured tedious pre-surgical testing to make sure she was healthy enough to undergo anesthesia and abstained from food and water after midnight.