Watching someone go under anaesthetic can be scary.
We associate a loss of consciousness to mean something very negative: such as fainting, trauma, death.
This mouse gets it.
I can only imagine that this discomfort is significantly worse if its your child that you watch go under. If I could give you any advice, I would say its important to prepare yourself beforehand as best you can. If you are with a child, it's important to remember to be calm outwardly, as children will pick up on our fear. Even if they don't know if the new experience is scary, seeing you start to panic will definitely make them panic.
When working in paediatrics, managing parents is a huge portion of our job. Not only do we have to think about our patient, we have to navigate the emotions of those attending as well. It is a delicate juggle.
Humans are creatures of instinct. Yes, we have control over our actions, but some stressors kick that fight or flight response into overdrive and suddenly our conscious brain is no longer driving this person car, our feral brain is.
In my first year of being an ODP, I had a nervous parent bring their child in. It was kiddo Zed's first anaesthetic and they had no idea what to expect. Parent is a little nervous, but working real hard to hide it. The induction goes beautifully. There are bubbles and smelly gas, and we go to sleep on parents lap giggling. Once Zed is off to sleep the anaesthetist says to parent "they're asleep now, I've got their head, if you carefully lift them up - mouse will help with their legs - and lay them onto the bed..."
The parent is frozen, staring at their kiddo, who is limp in their arms.
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Let me interrupt for a moment; going to sleep is a misleading phrase. It sounds simple. But being anaesthetised is nothing like going to sleep at night. The drugs (either a gas that you breathe in or a liquid going through a cannula) send your brain into a much deeper state of consciousness. You go floppy, and relaxed. Fast. Many of your reflexes turn off while the drugs are in your system. You may make really distressing sounds that are worse than snoring as you stop protecting your airway as well. Sometimes you stop breathing for a bit. It can be scary when you're not used to it! You don't respond to someone calling your name, or to someone touching you. For many parents who aren't prepared it can be the stuff of nightmares.
It is fairly straightforward to keep you safe once you go off to sleep. We hold a mask to your face that is blowing oxygen and either assist your breathing, or take it over completely. We will support your airway through devices like a endotracheal tube (ETT, or tube for short) or a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) until we start waking you up, then we'll help you transition back to breathing and supporting yourself. It's controlled. We know the risks, we work hard to keep you safe.
But it looks scary.
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So this parent is staring, frozen, as young Zed goes limp in their arms and the stress of what they're experiencing sends their brain into fight or flight mode.
Flight won.
They went from immobile to bolting out the door, kiddo in arms, so fast. It took me a few seconds to blink and process what just happened. But while parent brain thinks this is the best way to protect their kid, this kiddo isn't breathing. We have to take over their breathing. So by bolting, the parent has taken them out of the safe place and into the hallways. We pull the emergency alarm, and run after them, basically shoving and pinning the parent into a wall and pulling the child out of their arms. We don't have time to go back to our anaesthetic room, or even to console parent, we run into the one next to us.
It was terrifying.
That poor parent didn't mean to put their child at risk, but the consequences of that could have been awful. The lack of oxygen could have caused a hypoxic brain injury. Needless to say, we didn't proceed with the surgery. We took over their breathing, got our own hearts to stop pounding so fast and woke them back up again. The family were referred for psychology support before the surgery as rescheduled.
Zed was fine. Many months later, when they had gotten their psychology support and did have their procedure, it went smoothly, without incident.
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I have never had a parent do that again, but now we always have a nurse between parent and the door.
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