Hey Ella Getting Ella out of car seat`
Are you excited?
Got her binky, got her bag? Are you going to feel better today... are
you going to be able to hear?
This is ella smith... hi ella how are you this morning?
She's getting ear tubes put in... she doesn't even know she's going to feel better
She had back to back ear infections and she still has fluid on her ears. She just needs
help getting fluid off her ear drum... or Ella's going to have her own speech... cause
she won't be able to hear clearly
Of course you're a little anxious about your child having surgery, but I think Dr. Elmaraghy
has done a good job of educating us... letting us know what's going to happen each step of
the way.
I chose a facility that only deals with pediatrics... only kids... and who better else to take care
of your children then someone who constantly sees them and takes care of them
I'm going to take her temperature..
You guys can come on in... set your stuff on the chair
She can keep her socks and her little toy
So about 15 min when we leave her to when we see her again? It will be about half an
hour... half an hour... ok
How are you cutie pie?
The entire surgery takes a little over 10 min and I'll come talk to you when we're finished
Hey cutie... today's your day Hello everyone...this is Ella smith..
Time in the room is going to be 744 So this is an ear tube.. you can see it's
only a couple millimeters.. We implant the tube and it expands across
the eardrum... The purpose of a tube is to keep a ventilation
hole in the ear drum
Is it getting better now?
Perfect
Alright... Here's our ear speculum
Basically we just put that very gently in Ella's ear
The reason we're doing this is just persistent fluid in Ella's ear
She slept through a fire alarm at school... so maybe now she'll hear that fire alarm
She's got quite a bit of fluid that's gonna be suctioned out... we're going to send a
sample to the lab to find out what kind of bacteria has been in her ear
I usually irrigate out the middle ear with a little bit of antibiotic
I'll take the tube... so this is the ear tube fairly small... that will just ventilate the
middle ear that will help in infection drain and allow us to put in antibiotic in her ears
if she gets an ear infection That is perfect... ear drops please
It will be nice to see her and know it's over We're going to move on to the left ear
So same exact thing... just put the speculum in the ear
So we just make a very small incision ... one millimeter incision in the ear drum
And that's a complete ear tube... ear tubes on both sides.
Calling Ella's parents after surgery Oh my gosh... that went really fast
Walking to consult room Hey, everything went perfect
She needed that badly ... she had fluid on both sides...
This is the only care that you're doing to use after surgery... so these are antibiotic
ear drops By this afternoon she should be good to go
She did perfect... she did perfect Will she hear a lot better? She will definitely
hear a lot better... I can't guarantee she'll listen to you... laughing...
Probably in about ten minutes they'll call you back... once she's awake and you'll be
able to see her... ok... thank you...
I thought it would take forever... and it's like I blinked and they asked us to come back
and see him. I didn't think I was going to be as nervous
as I was when I left her, but now that's it's over and I've talked to the doctor... it's
a sense of relief. Ear tubes function a couple things... they
allow us to sample what's in the ear so we can culture it and determine exactly what
bacteria it is... but also it provides instant relief for the child if they have fluid in
their ears The tubes last one to 3 years... they typically
fall out on their own We like to see the child back about six weeks
out just to make sure the ear drum has kept the ear tube in and that the ear tube remains
open From there we see her every six months until
those tubes fall out Fast recovery ... ear tubes are a good surgery
in the fact for a patient like Ella they actually feel a lot better after surgery... her hearing
will be better... she'll have a lot less pressure in her ear drum
APPROXIMATELY 2,500 EAR TUBE SURGERIES ARE DONE AT NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL EVERY
YEAR. There's no such thing as routine surgery ... with
regards to ear tubes... we consider every patient our most important patient of the
day and with a patient like Ella... everything has be to perfect. We don't ever consider
it routine.
This is Ella... she's all done She did fabulous
She seems happy... and was happy before and after.. that's about as good as it can be.
I knew she was in great hands with Dr. Elmaraghy Nationwide Children's definitely did a great
job from beginning to end... we got registered we got back to pre-op... everyone was very
informative... everyone cared about ella, cared about us.. and even as we left... everyone
made sure we didn't have any questions or concerns regarding her or us.