Is this something that we should get another medical opinion? Is it OK to do this procedure (considered ‘minor’) on a Friday afternoon?
Question:
An ENT examined our son in regards to his poor hearing and gave us several options to choose from, to deal with this. We discussed the options with a Jewish expert in the field and he recommended the option of inserting tubes and removing the adenoids. 1) Is this something that we should get another medical opinion on? 2) Is it OK to do this procedure (considered ‘minor’) on a Friday afternoon?
Answer:
The procedure you describe is a fairly common one for young children with poor hearing. It sounds like you discussed it with two professionals already, which seems sufficient, especially given its low-risk nature.
Although the procedure itself is minor, it is inadvisable to do it Friday afternoon, because it is routinely performed under general anesthetic, which leads to two concerns:
- It is most likely to be performed as a day surgery in a hospital, and hospitals often run late.
- It can take several hours for the anesthetic to wear off completely, which would affect the patient as well as whoever is caring for the child.
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