med people are so annoying "This family's 8 year old child who was about to go through a major surgery and kept crying that she was hungry so they pitied her and gave her food, she then had a heart attack in the surgery. They're so stupid 😒" girl they didn't know that could happen or why it happens. it takes so little time to explain to them that will happen instead of telling them "no food" with no explanation 10 times
"Before surgery, your body’s reflexes that protect your airway are relaxed by anesthesia. If there’s food or liquid in your stomach, it will near certainly come back up and go into your lungs, which can cause choking, a severe lung / heart infection or even a heart attack. That’s called aspiration, and it is life-threatening. It's hard, but it's only a single day to prevent near certain death. Not eating or drinking beforehand massively lowers the risk and helps prevent these life threatening situations under anesthesia." <- TIP: patients have brains which allows them to receive information just like you
I have four kids. I’ve had one or another of them need some kind of surgical procedure that requires anesthesia four or five times over the past 15 years.
This Tumblr post is the first time someone has explained to me *why* I couldn’t feed them before those instances.
I’m not stupid. I understood that just fine. Hell, my kids would have understood that just fine. But no one bothered to tell us.
i did know this before having kids (i have six). we have a kid that's needed multiple procedures requiring anesthesia. and every single time, i am asked multiple times if i'm sure he was not given any food or water after a certain point.
every single time i have had to say, "i understand that if he had food or water, he could aspirate it into his lungs under anesthesia. i am not lying to you." THEN someone would make a little note and i would stop being repeatedly asked.
not a single time was that risk explained to me. the only reason it came up was because i already knew. i still don't understand why it isn't standard pre-op counseling or pre-op check information, when me as a parent acknowledging the actual risk also put THE MEDICAL STAFF at ease because i conveyed that i had informed understanding as reason to not lie about giving my kid food.
"maybe some people will get nervous and refuse surgery" okay so they need more counseling about risks and anxiety, not less information in a way that actually does endanger their child or themselves!
Reblogging to save a life and teach medical professionals basic communication skills
see how easy it was to give that information!
I'm pretty sure if a parent goes against doctors orders and harms their kid, that parent is still responsible for their actions. Is this post implying otherwise?
Person above me is correct, if you have gone to a medical professional for help with something you do not have experience with, and they give you explicit instructions like “do not give your child food for x hours before surgery”, then the *why* of that does not matter. You are still responsible for listening to that instruction and following it, even if you don’t understand why you’re doing it. If you do not follow it and your child is harmed it is directly because of YOUR actions and YOU are responsible
Also, I work in the medical field, in an ER, where we have to send people for surgery somewhat often. In every single case where a patient says “I didn’t know I was supposed to do/not do that” it is because they didn’t listen when the nurses and doctors spoke to them. EVERY SINGLE TIME. We get people who can’t even glance at their own discharge paperwork to see how often to take a medication, despite the fact that those instructions were explained to them several times beforehand, and it is no different with people going in for surgery.
Before a surgery you will see at least one nurse, one doctor, one surgeon, and one anesthesiologist (in reality you will see many more nurses with many different jobs, and probably CNAs and techs, but still). Every single one of those people will explain to you what to do and why you do it and ask if you understand. People completely zone out and not listen, or make up what they want to hear instead, and just nod and say sure when in reality they have no idea what the instructions they were just given are. Before a surgery, every surgery, no less than 3-7 people will go over the procedure and instructions for you and allow you to ask questions. They will explain everything in detail. Unfortunately if you are not listening or don’t intend to follow the instructions then that is your own fault.
And even if that were not the case, as I mentioned above, in these scenarios the *why* does not matter. It does not matter if you know why not to give your kid food, because your medical team all knows why, and they have all told you not to do it. You going against those instructions is not on them for not explaining all the medical details.
Just listen to your care team and do what they say. It’s a lot better than dying
