Study Shows Healthy Black Kids Die More Often After Surgery Than White Kids
A new study has shown that within 30 days from their operations, healthy black kids die more often after surgery than white kids. After examining nearly 173,000 operations from 2012 through 2017, findings show that black children were nearly 3.5 times more likely to die due to post-op complications, which includes an 18% greater chance of developing.
While it’s known that black adults have a higher rate of poor outcomes after surgery than their white counterparts — due to possessing higher rates of chronic diseases, coupled with implicit bias and structural racism — the same is now being shown among black children, who are healthy.
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Dr. Olubukola Nafiu, lead author of the study and pediatric anesthesiologist and vice chair for academic affairs and research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, says, “Healthy kids have low complication rates. The expectation should be that complication rates and/or mortality among healthy children won’t vary based on racial category — what we found is that they do.”
Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, chair of the minority health, equity and inclusion committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, adds, “Although these findings are unsurprising, they are still nonetheless terrifying and unacceptable. To think of any children dying after surgery is distressing; however, children who have no or mild illness prior to surgery and to go on to experience complications, adverse events, or even death requires immediate attention and action.”
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