Delivering much-needed safe surgery for children

Dave Tipping, a qualified architect, and director of Global Operations at Kids Operating Room (KidsOR), describes the charity’s work to try to ‘close the gap’ in children’s healthcare globally, but especially in low and middle-income countries in Africa, South East Asia, and Latin America, with the supply of a range of modern operating theatre equipment to hospitals in these regions that, to date, it says, has ‘saved children’s lives, averted needless pain, and prevented an estimated 509,238 years of disability’.

When you think of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of the past century, these five words are probably not what springs to mind: ‘Children are not little adults’. 1 They certainly don’t have the same attraction as antibody puzzles, human trials, or vaccine recipes. Yet, what they represent in terms of the shift in medical thinking and surgical practice has saved countless lives, and continues to prevent untold misery. That’s because when it comes to surgical care, children are different, and indeed, are not simply little adults. They develop distinct conditions, present unique anaesthetic challenges, and have special perioperative needs. Moreover, given that children – by definition – are at a critical stage of development (whether that be physical, cognitive, mental, or social), the consequences of surgical conditions may be lifelong, and the effects, good or bad, have compounded and magnified potential.

Exceptional improvements in care