The student edition of the British Medical Journal includes a helpful article by Alun Evans, a final-year medical student in London, and Simon Donovan, surgical officer in Hereford, on how medical students should behave in the operating theatre.
They explain reassuringly that most surgeons have felt faint at some time, but add: "If you do feel faint, then you should announce the fact and move carefully away from the table. It is far better to sit down quietly for a few minutes than to fall into an open wound."