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Pediatric Airway Emergency! An Anesthesiologist’s Life, a Father’s Nightmare
Medically reviewed by Patricia Salber, MD, MBA
The orderly progression of cases in the OR is interrupted when a l-year-old is rushed in, mottled and limp, from a pediatric airway emergency
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.Shakespeare, The Tempest Act IV, sc. 1, 156–158
I imagine a “rounded” sleep is a smooth and easy one, devoid of rough awakenings. It would be nice if my dreams were “rounded with a sleep,” but mine are jagged ones. And, more often than not, they are about my work. It is the particularly stressful operating room cases I revisit again and again in recursive loops of dread late into the night.
I am an anesthesiologist practicing in San Francisco, providing care at several hospitals and surgery centers. It was at the old Children’s Hospital that this terrifying tale of a pediatric airway emergency took place.
New: Dr. Salber’s Review Notes appear at the end of the story.
To this day, I dream of this case even though it happened many years ago. The memory of it will startle me awake. It troubles my thoughts…
