The video shows the tonsils being removed from a child, apparently in Belarus. No anesthesia is used. The child is restrained and under considerable emotional stress. The medical staff are not speaking harshly or being intentionally cruel. The procedure itself takes about one minute. It is bloody.Addendum: Ninabi notes "...from airing this sad, scary video in Ireland, funds were raised for an anesthetic machine for this hospital."
This will be disturbing to some viewers. On the other hand, this is real life. This is how things are done in some parts of the world. This is how this (and similar or worse) procedures were done in antiquity.
Remember the old adage: "what has been seen cannot be unseen" - then make your decision.
Originally posted in 2010. Reposted now because the post is continues to acquire interesting comments.
Thank you for the warning. Normally I can't look away from that kind of stuff, but since I have young kids, I just can't bring myself to look. If it was an adult I probably could... but I'll just have to take your word on this one.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up. There was a scene in a Dutch film called "Een Vlucht van Regenwulpen" whereby the main character - a child - has his mouth held open and tonsils cauterised without anaesthesia. It was harrowing to watch.
ReplyDeleteSo, nope, I'm not watching this clip. I'm feeling a bit wobbly and sad anyway and this would probably push me over the edge!
I thought of Roald Dahl's autobiographical book, Boy. He had his adenoids removed without anesthesia as a little boy- his description was chilling.
ReplyDeleteI read more about this situation in Belarus- from airing this sad, scary video in Ireland, funds were raised for an anesthetic machine for this hospital.
Having had my own tonsils out when I was nine, I cannot imagine the agony of this little boy. There was pain- but also there must have been a sense of betrayal by the adults around him. Telling him he didn't need to cry while tying his arms and legs down- I think if I were that little boy I would be avoiding doctors for the rest of my life.
I have undergone a similar operation, when I was growing up in eastern Europe. My adenoids were removed without anaesthesia. Although I wasn't blindfolded and tied down, it was very painful and bloody and I am still scared when I run into the doctor who performed it! Watching the video made me realize how difficult it must have been for my parents to watch me go through it.
ReplyDeleteI think of the kids (and dad) getting their tonsils out in "Cheaper By the Dozen". A link to the chapter is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=EzAE6cte3_QC&lpg=PA84&ots=6UJ3mOigVK&dq=%22cheaper%20by%20the%20dozen%22%20tonsils&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q=%22cheaper%20by%20the%20dozen%22%20tonsils&f=false
Thanks, Mike. I didn't know they used to have "inside lens caps," but I guess it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI didnt watch the video because its not up anymore but I had this same procedure done when I was 8 with no anesthesia. It was also done in Belarus. Wasn't that bad.:|
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up re the dead video, anon. I found another copy on YouTube and have embedded it.
DeleteMaybe it's you in this video...
How is this boy doing now?
DeleteWhoever wrote that it wasn't that bad when they had this procedure done is soo full of shit, its excrutiatingly painful and traumatic for these kids, and by the way they perform anything up to 12 procedures a day on these kids, who are all orphans because no parent would stand by and watch that happen to their child.
DeleteMy son (he's 11 years old) and I came across this video while searching for children in Chernobyl, and it was very disturbing to watch. It was really heartbreaking to watch! My son felt really sad and began crying just thinking about his pain, he wanted to know how that little boy is doing now? Does anyone know how we might find out how that little boy is at present?
ReplyDeleteI doubt that you will be able to find any information about that specific boy, but I would say the odds are over 98% that he's doing fine. Pain is unpleasant to experience (or watch), but it's brief; he was probably reasonably comfortable later that same day and doing fine now, happy to have his tonsils out.
DeleteI had the same procedure done to me when I was six years old back when I lived in Russia. I can still remember it.... Although it did not stop me from going to med school.
ReplyDeleteThis is inexcusably horrible, they say they have no money to anesthesia, if no conditions to general anesthesia, that's not excuse to why at least not use a oral anesthetic spray (of novocaine or similar)and some pacifier + analgesic medicine to let the kids less aware of it, with less pain, less distressed and without the problems of general anesthesia out of surgery live support room. Certainly at least for that if they were really interested can fight for some piety soul should found some novocaine sprays and medicines. This is live butchery over a helpless child this is haurfull thing without any excuse just comparable to war time surgery. PLEASE STOP DOING THIS! If you have no ideal conditions that's not one excuse to not use some available conditions. You neither care in this conditions if kid accidentally close the mouth you can make him a live fretting hound... Please I hope: 1st that be true they already not doing this this way and be true money had been get to them get conditions as written. 2nd that the person that had say he go trough this and had not been stopped go to med. School because of it never do himself a thing like this to others, specially helpless child! PLEASE HAVE SOME HEARTH-FEELINGS!!!
ReplyDeleteMy wife had her tonsils removed with no anesthesia when she was a teenager in Vietnam (mid 1980's). She remembers the procedure was done using spoon with the edges sharpened, and the bowlfuls of blood she spit afterwards. The doctor in her town did thousands of tonsil removal surgeries for many decades, up until one day (also mid 1980's) the daughter of a high-up communist official died right there in his operating room immediately after the surgery from massive blood loss. The government was going to put the doctor in jail for 3 years, but he ran away to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) before he was arrested. I wasn't there, so I don't know the situation surrounding the whole matter; but obviously the doctor lacked the proper tools to do the job, but the job still needed to be done, as would most likely be the case in many developing countries.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Thanks, anon.
DeleteI watched this video on youtube a few nights ago and have been struggling to get through a day without thinking about that boy getting butchered like that. I just cant get it out of my head and keep crying constantly as it was so shocking to watch. It has bothered me so much that I emailed the cherylnobel childrens charity too ask if they are still carrying this barbaric treatment out. I am never going to be able to forget what I watched it was the most horrific thing I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me I find this terrible, my sister had to go through this procedure with my brother but they were NOT blindfolded so they saw everything! she says that its the most horrific and scard moment of her life, this all occured in lithuania btw. but it is not done for low budget of drugs, its because it is healthier to do it without.
ReplyDeleteI also chose to watch and was so stunned that such things could happen in a world full of knowledge, medicine, pain medication, and civil medical practices. I have seen patients in an American ER with risk of hemorrhage even after a civil tonsillectomy, so I can imagine many of these unfortunate young children bled to death after being psychologically and emotionally traumatized for life with this sickening procedures. Thankfully the internet brought light to this hidden away atrocity.
ReplyDeleteI had it done when I was seven in Slovakia :-/
ReplyDeleteI had had it done just like this when I was 5 years old in Estonia. But nevertheless...I myself am ENT surgeon now :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Unknown. After I reviewed your comment I realized that the embedded video from 2010 had undergone linkrot, so I've replaced it with an active version.
Deleteomg i had my tonsils removed when i was a kid in kazakhstan in the 1990's.was most terrible experience..i still have nightmares about being tied to a chair and screaming and blood all over me and the floor :(..i think in those days was normal way to do this...i hope it improved now
ReplyDeleteI had it done in 1965 when I was 4 -in Spain. I wasn't blindfolded and it is indelibly stamped in my memory. I remember my arms being strapped down to a chair, that's when I started kicking and resisting such as I could, I remember they used a stainless steel appliance to keep my mouth open as I refused to open it and the cutting tool being put in my mouth...i may have fainted or I have memory blocked the rest of the procedure as my next recollection is in a hospital room.
ReplyDeleteI had my adenoids removed when I was a child. In Romania, after 1999. I remember that I felt everything,the blood was pouring and I was screaming and calling for my grandmother who was outside the surgery room. Before I left the hospital, she made me apologize to the doctor.
ReplyDeleteI read an article on pain that spoke of how some Americans view the suffering of pain as almost noble or heroic, and so criticize those who take drugs to ease pain. With this article came the revelation that, until relatively recently, open heart surgery was done on infants without anesthesia. The belief was that infants did not feel pain in the same way adults did. The story is near unbelievable, but apparently true.
ReplyDeleteThen you won't believe how recently circumcisions were done without anesthesia for the same belief...
DeleteI do indeed seek to shelter myself from videos or movies that can't be "unseen" in the worst way. I won't be watching "The Exorcist" or "Hereditary," nor will I watch beheading videos or the such. However, when you pointed out that this was not done to hurt someone, that the doctors were not being cruel, etc., I got an idea of what you meant.
ReplyDeleteWhen my son was of age to have to get shots for school, I took the little fellow to the doctor (if my wife had been there with us, I would not be writing this, as I would likely be dead). There were four or five shots that had to be administered. I knew that if my son was already getting antsy over ONE shot, it wasn't going to get easier. In any case, I hugged my fine little boy to me...and let the nurse quickly administer all of the shots. Oh, how my boy wept--and I almost did too. Yet it was necessary, and it likely hurt a lot less than he thought, since I believe most of it was dread.
When my wife heard of this travesty, I thought about going into the Witness Protection Program. But I told her that if she had stopped with one shot, she'd have had to wrestle with him every single other shot when she went back. Better to get it over with. And, indeed, my boy was fine in about three minutes, but had he not been, my name would be Dfarinestrum Xaviom Petroskininski (or some such).
Oddly enough, when I was taken to the doctor as a child, I actually hit the doctor (I think my mother said I knocked his glasses off) to escape a shot. I'm far better about it now, but maybe there's a gene....
I distinctly remember an incident in an emergency room setting where a small child was running around and in the way. His mother pulled him over and said to him "you behave now, or I'll have the doctor give you a shot."
DeleteI had to restrain myself from reprimanding her, for what amounted to teaching the child to equate "shots" with pain and punishment.
This is almost exactly how the procedure was administered in me when I was a child in Russia. It is insane that this archaic method was even implemented in children...just wow
ReplyDeleteI had this done in one of the former soviet union countries when I was about 10. The doctor aparently did inject something, but it either was an empty syringe or the anaesthetic was not at all efficient. They didn't tie me but instead another nurse was holding my head pushed to the back of the chair. Now I am 36, and I still remember the pain. You can't erase it from your memory.
ReplyDeleteNot in the west! BS. In the 1960s I had a similar operation in a NYC free clinic. Except they were considerate and asked if I want a blindfold.
ReplyDeleteI had tonsils removal operation in Vitebsk, Belarus, January 1980, at the age of 7. No anaesthesia. I was brutally held by nurses during the procedure. Still remember the pain, smell, flash and blood. Screamed like crazy. After the operation my hands were shaky. They send me and my mother to another room full with kids. All were crying, shaky and pale like dead people. My mother said that I was extremely pale as well. When people say that communism had some advantages like free medicine they are not aware that in Soviet communism it was better to pay just not to have medical procedures
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment. Thank you, Slava.
DeleteI read that within living memory it used to be thought that infants did not need anesthesia. We would actually do heart surgery on infants without anesthesia. Wow.
ReplyDelete