It is now well proven that sub-dissociative doses of Ketamine are by far the safest, most effective pain treatment for children.
This was literally the most modern best practices if those kids had pain before, during or after the extraction process.
I dunno, the Sacklers seem to have research that says different.
I would totally go with the Sackler’s information 
So far so good, amirite?
That is exactly accurate and why it was used for this. Pretty good for a “layman!” 
I’m a pretty ok ER nurse and I approve this message.
Looks like it was Richard Harris who administered the Ketamine.
Doctor Richard Harris, an anaesthetist, was part of the medical team that determined the boys’ fitness to make the 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) journey. Harris and his diving partner, retired veterinarian Doctor Craig Challen, both cave diving specialists, played key roles in the rescue. The Thai government provided Harris with diplomatic immunity to protect him in case anything went wrong with the sedation.[51][112]
I had a large dose of Ketamine when my right arm was set in 2009. I had a freaky 10000 years in the K hole but I am fine now.
Well that’s depressi … never mind.
Mmmm, calvin klein.
Those expert cave divers have 2 important skills.
- Identifying potential cave divers who are likely to panic. They don’t want to dive with these people
- Moving bodies out of caves.
The trapped boys and ketamine gave them a unique opportunity to use these skills at the same time.
Won’t somebody think of the K-kids (he stuttered, shiveringly).
Shivering and panicking increase your oxygen demand.
Offand, do you know why ketamine ended up so tightly regulated and given such a bad rap when it appears to be damned useful? Or why it isn’t used more as anesthetic in medical settings? You tend to provide some good info.
If you don’t know offhand or are too busy, I’ll just try to look it up later. I need to stop goofing off right now 
I think it was largely due to the bad rap it got as a street drug. Adult docs got scared off by the hallucinations, but in my experience, kids seem to enjoy them! When I worked in the PICU, oral ketamine and versed were my favorite sedation to do painful procedures. Works like a charm and minimal risks. (Noting that “minimal risk” in an ICU with monitors in place is a relative term!)
I am not sure but kinda think anesthesiologists wanted tight control of it because it works so well for procedures that it makes them unessesary. It’s ridiculously useful in the ER and has a low side effect profile but we are really clamped down on how we use it. So we are forced to use more dangerous options. Which is stupid.
This. By the time my ICU stint was coming to an end, ketamine was almost entirely restricted to the OR. As useful as it is in the units and the EDs, I can imagine anesthesiologists being quite threatened by its safety profile and efficacy, but in fairness I never actually heard anyone say this.
This is exactly right. My neighbour is a caver & diver of long standing, and at a party of his recently I got speaking to one of the guys who were consultants on the cave rescue. Sedation was essential to prevent panic in zero visibility under cold water… apparently the first thing a person does when they panic is either rip off their breathing apparatus, or even their companion’s too. Ketamine is used because it keeps the airways open and so standard breathing apparatus can be used. I think I’m right in saying this was first used during a cave rescue in the Yorkshire dales some 25 years ago by Geoff Yeadon - the idea came from a marine biology paper where researchers found that tranquilising seals (for tagging purposes) was best done using Ketamine as they kept breathing and hence didn’t drown between being darted and then being recovered. Sorry the details are sketchy but I was a bit drunk.
The local town in Thailand also ran out of bunjee, since it all got bought for trussing up the kids while they were knocked out. They used empty water bottle jammed sown between their legs to achieve neutral bouyancy. Cavers are really ‘special’ people…
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