2 children die after tonsil and adenoid surgeries at McMaster Children’s Hospital prompting pause on surgeries

McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton says it has paused scheduled tonsil and adenoid surgeries for patients under the age of 18 after two children recently died after being discharged following those types of procedures.

“One child passed away the day after their surgery and the second child passed away nine days after their initial surgery,” the hospital said in a release Wednesday.

“While there is no apparent connection between these two cases, we are also undertaking a comprehensive review by external subject matter experts of our pediatric program for tonsil and adenoid surgeries.”

During the pause, the hospital will only perform tonsil and adenoid surgeries on people under 18 that are considered emergencies.

“All adult ear, nose, throat (ENT) surgeries are proceeding,” the hospital added. “The ENT Clinic also remains operational.”

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the province should also be examining the deaths.

“Absolutely the government should be looking into that,” she said at Queen’s Park Wednesday. “That’s deeply concerning.”

“Having said that I think there are many recommendations that have been made to the government to improve conditions in our hospitals right now that they can be acting on before we actually need to have an investigation.”

Liberal Critic for Health, Housing, Northern and Indigenous Issues, Dr. Adil Shamji, said while he doesn’t know specific details about the deaths, he does know Ontario hospitals are short staffed and under strain — factors that could have contributed to the tragedies.

“I think the hospital needs to get whatever support it requires in terms of being able to investigate and understand what the circumstances were. But I will say, currently we find hospitals under enormous pressure, we’re finding enormous pressure to clear up beds and discharge patients earlier than ever before.”

“I don’t know what the specific cause was at McMaster Children’s Hospital — I mean tonsil surgery is pretty routine and typically elective surgery. It may speak to some of the underlying challenges that we face around not having enough staff and health care workers feeling the pressure to discharge people too early.”

Shamji says after the hospital finishes its investigation, the Ministry of Health should follow up.

“I think it’s essential that the Ministry of Health needs to be looking into that and (I’m) expecting a clear report that outlines the findings from that.”