Medicine: Anesthesia via Teddy Bear

• Share

For a child, the hardest part of an operation usually comes before the surgeon's knife has touched him. The strange sights and smells, the anesthesiologist's impatient coaxing, the confining anesthesia mask that is pressed against his face are all things that fill the youngster with terror. To prevent psychic traumas, reports Medical News, doctors have devised a series of toys that administer anesthesia without tears.

Susie is handed a Teddy bear to play with in the operating room. As she fondles it, gas hisses from a concealed tube in the bear's snout. After Susie drops quietly asleep, she is given deeper anesthesia through a mask. Gas-emitting space helmets, toy telephones, dolls and a host of other toys are also used as foils for anesthesia. Most doctors agree that children should be given a truthful description of the steps that will lead to unconsciousness. But the fascination of a plaything is usually enough to erase the child's fear of the operating room.