Case Study: Making the scary “not so bad” for children!

There is always an element of worry when your child goes into surgery, even if for a relatively minor procedure. However, our experience with the team at Auckland Eye was that their caring and informative approach meant we felt incredibly at ease right throughout our journey with them.

Our 8 year old son had been having trouble with an inflamed, irritated eye for quite some time , so we were referred to Auckland Eye from our family doctor.

His first appointment at Auckland Eye was with Dr Stuart Carroll, who specialises in paediatric eye conditions.  His clear, straightforward explanations and  confident manner quickly dispelled any nerves we all had.  In fact, we were mostly impressed with how Dr Carroll spoke directly to our son, rather than to us his parents, which we know made our son feel more comfortable.

We were told our son had a meibomian cyst (or chalazion), which is a relatively common condition caused by a blockage of a gland in the eyelid. Whilst they can often go away on their own, since our son’s was persistently causing problems and pain it was decided it should be treated with a small operation. Since it is minor surgery, it can sometimes be performed under a local anaesthetic rather than a general anaesthetic, however this can sometimes be too nerve-racking for young children.

Dr Carroll asked our son directly, which option he felt he would prefer and our son said ‘I don’t want to be awake, please give me the general anaesthetic’. This approach was so great in that it gave our son some sense of control over an otherwise pretty scary situation.

On the day of his procedure, we were greeted by the lovely team at Oasis Surgical which is the part of Auckland Eye where operations are carried out. We were settled in to the pre-operation area  and visited by Dr Carroll himself to explain again what was planned and answer any final questions.

The nurses told us that a parent could go in to the theatre room with our son and stay with him until he was fast asleep. This made him very happy!

Once we were in the theatre room, everyone quietly and efficiently buzzed around getting things prepared, all throughout chatting to our son to let him know what was going on and keeping him calm. As soon as the general anaesthetic kicked in I was escorted out of the room to wait for him to come through to the recovery area.

His time in recovery was just as pleasant as the rest of our experience at Auckland Eye. The nursing team kept a close eye on him as he gradually woke up, and we were given hot drinks and biscuits once he was feeling well enough to sit up. On our drive home not long after he said “Well that wasn’t so bad”, pretty telling words from an 8 year old boy!

Thank you Auckland Eye for taking such wonderful care of our son. We are so grateful for your efforts to make an otherwise scary experience, so straightforward and easy.