Tracheal intubation is necessary, but painful

It feels like a "second opinion" has become established as a right for patients and their families receiving medical care these days, but what do you all actually think about it?

Have you ever used a second opinion?

This time, I would like to share how important a "second opinion" is based on my own experience.

Once you leave the NICU, you can't go back!

I previously wrote about my child who had developmental delays and was born as a low birth weight infant (premature baby).

After birth, he moved from the NICU to the GCU and was discharged after about two weeks, but after that,

・He wasn't gaining weight
・He wasn't drinking milk well
・He had chest retractions and labored breathing

Because of these, he was readmitted at one month old.

This was when I learned for the first time that,

"If you are discharged from the NICU (actually the GCU) and are readmitted, you will never return to the NICU."

That was the case.

In other words, even for a small one-month-old baby, once they leave the NICU, if they are readmitted to the same medical institution, it becomes an "admission to the pediatric ward."

I was working at a hospital at the time, but I didn't know that, yes.

(Note) Exceptions include cases where a patient is transferred from the NICU to the NICU of another medical institution that provides more advanced medical care for treatment, and then returns to the original hospital's NICU after the treatment is finished.

First, I was slightly shocked. Naturally, the NICU has a generous staff system, and infection control measures are more thorough than in a regular ward. Support for parents is also generous, and visiting hours are long.

When this becomes a pediatric ward, first of all, it felt pitiful to see my baby son placed in a large bed for toddlers.

Furthermore, since it was a large room, the children around him were talking and walking normally. But here was just a bedridden one-month-old baby, and that was also pitiful.

In addition, children in the NICU are often followed by obstetricians and gynecologists on the mother's side.

If the mother had physical complications such as diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy, or if a chromosomal abnormality is suspected in the child, obstetricians and neonatologists work together to treat the child, which is reassuring for parents.

When I went to visit the NICU, the obstetrician who took care of me until the birth would often come to see my child.

Readmission to the pediatric ward felt like that connection was suddenly severed, and I was anxious at the time.

Well, since he was discharged from the NICU without any problems, I suppose the story becomes that we will now investigate the feeding difficulties and chest retractions in the pediatric department, but from the family's perspective, it is an anxious thing when entrusting your child.

"Tracheal intubation" is a painful medical procedure

The introduction has become long. In short, as a result of the detailed examination during this readmission, I received an explanation that "Surgery A is necessary," but as a result of me going to another pediatric hospital for a second opinion,

"It is not Surgery A, but a completely different Surgery B that is necessary"

That is what happened.

In the first place, the disease (diagnosis) causing the respiratory failure was different.

The pediatric hospital that provided the second opinion gave advice directly to the university hospital where my child was admitted, and as a result of re-examination,

"The diagnosis has changed (it was different). Therefore, surgery B is necessary, not surgery A"

The university hospital acknowledged this and explained it to me again. In other words,

if we had not sought a second opinion, my son would not have been able to receive the surgery he actually needed, and would have instead undergone an unnecessary surgery, which is what it boils down to.

This is quite a significant matter, isn't it?

And until that was discovered, because my child continued to suffer from respiratory failure, he was intubated for three weeks as a treatment.

It was a necessary procedure to sustain life, and even to perform surgery B, tracheal intubation was required to maintain his breathing until then.

Even though I understood that, it was painful to see my child in an intubated state.

My child is now 17 years old, but if I were asked what the most painful thing in these 17 years was, I would immediately name these "three weeks of tracheal intubation."

After this, my child was transferred to the pediatric hospital that provided the second opinion and underwent surgery B.

I would like to write about this in a little more detail in the next article!