Emergency physician and pediatric pain researcher Dr. Samina Ali says for a long time, doctors believed young children's nervous systems were so underdeveloped they couldn't feel or remember pain.
Since then, the country has made major strides toward managing the pain of young patients, and standardizing the approach across the county is another huge step, she said at a technical briefing on Monday morning. Accreditation Canada and the Health Standards Organization will make the guidelines available to hospitals and health workers for free, but hope they could one day form the basis of policy and training for health-care professionals.
Children who are Black, Indigenous or otherwise experience discrimination and inequity are disproportionately impacted, she said.
The fact that doctors were doing surgery on babies in the 80s without anesthesia is some of the most disturbing information I've ever learned and it shocks me there's no formal financial support for psychotherapy for those who were subjected to such horrific procedures.