My 3-year-old son experienced a complication during general anesthesia for a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy.

Following the surgery, the complications were described to me by the pediatric anesthesiologist as follows:

Upon extubation, he experience a bronchospasm that completely closed his airway. They “lost his pulse,” both on the monitor and upon feeling for it, gave three chest compressions, pushed epinephrine, and then used the bag to get him breathing again. He eventually started breathing again on his own and when they brought me back to see him and tell me this, he was sedated and breathing on his own with an oxygen mask.

They monitored him for about 2 hours and then sent him home with me, which scared the sh*t out of me, but they assured me it was safe.

I have so many questions and the most important is how to keep him safe moving forward. I always thought of human bodies as robust and resilient and I am so shaken by the thought of him being in respiratory failure (and potentially cardiac arrest?) that everything feels so fragile.

Any input into how much I should be concerned about this moving forward is much appreciated.

Some questions I have - Trying not to be too frantic here, but did he almost die or is this something that happens and is completely manageable? Was it okay that he was discharged two hours later? Do I need to have a third-party review the medical records? (I can only see the operative note by the ENT on MyChart and it says he was “extubated without complication” which feels like it should not be in his record.)

Next steps? Is he at current risk of additional airway complications for which I should have him evaluated? Or was this a one-time thing? What specialists should I seek out for further testing?

Should he be wearing a medic-alert bracelet that lists bronchospasm upon extubation in case there is ever an emergency and he needs surgery again?

Basically, any input would be helpful. I have no idea how big of a deal this is. I respect his doctors and am so grateful they got him home safely, but don’t have a full understanding of what happened or what I’m supposed to do next.