A 1992 study reported that infants received less than half the number of doses of pain medication that adults did after open heart surgery. One problem is that children can't describe their pain in words that nurses and doctors understand. Instead, they express it through crying, facial expression, and body movements. Heart rate and breathing also increase when a child is in pain. Another reason children may be undermedicated is the fear that strong drugs will suppress their breathing.
Nobody really knows the absolute risk.
The overall risk of a child's dying from anesthesia is estimated to be 1 in 10,000, he says. Doctors recognize the risk to be greater for young children, and much greater for newborn and premature babies, but there are no definite statistics on those risks. Because the SRS is voluntary, the data collected cannot be used to determine the absolute risks of any drug. What the SRS can do is signal potential problems. The most dangerous time during anesthesia administration is just as the patient is going to sleep.