Dental Surgery Anethesia & intubation

January 8, 2004

Hi Kim;-)

You bring up good points about the children getting intubated. I was asked

at a local hospital (adult trauma) right before they intubated my RSS

daughter if anyone had ever had trouble intubating her. I said no in my

shock. It ended up being a very traumatic intubation that ended up taking 45

minutes because everyone tried and failed and they waited for a some sort of

specialist from outside the hospital. My daughter ended up having brain

damage which possibly resulted from this horrible intubation or a very high

fever. Who's to know for sure.

The point I am trying to drill in is that my daughter had a few surgeries

where she was intubated and not one doctor told us she was a remotely

difficult intubation. She ended up getting intubated many more times and I

had them write up her anomalies. Like you said the small lower jaw and the

high arched palate make it difficult to see especially when using their

typical blade method. RSS children's airways are also smaller and narrower

than a doctor may suspect so they may try to use a tube that is too wide and

not be ready with a very small tube let alone one with a cuff to inhibit air

leakage. Also, they had to build up under her shoulders because her occiput

was so large for her body. (this one erks me because anyone who has had CPR

knows you need to open the air way) One last thing that was noted was that

my daughters epiglottis was anterior in position. Exactly how they

interpret that information I am unsure of. I do not want anyone on this

list serve to have to go through the brutal intubation my daughter did so

please remember that doctors who are unfamiliar with intubating RSS children

need to know these possible problems BEFORE they attempt it.

I am sorry for the strength of this message it is just a day that is burned

in my memory forever and I also know it was burned in those doctors memories

too.

I wanted to get this out at some point. For the dental surgery they most

likely will not intubate. If I were you I would try the nitrous first then

move to an IV (I forget what they use for this) but they can stay in a

deeper sleep for a bit without respiratory assistance.

Seeking Peace,

J

>

> Reply-To: RSS-Support

> Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 03:52:46 -0000

> Subject: Re: Dental Surgery Questions

>

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