Young children can truly amaze with the things they do sometimes, and the "adaptability" of my 2 1/2 year old during and after my surgery was a perfect example.
On the day of surgery (I'm relying on my family here, after all I was asleep on the table!), keeping things moving seemed to work best. In other words, sitting around in a waiting room all day with toys probably won't work very well, even if one is a tv/movie. Everything at a major hospital is pretty new and exciting to a young child, so having one caregiver walk the child around for a tour is a good idea, while someone else stays in the waiting room for updates. The simplest things like a cafeteria can be neat for a kid to see, and a lot of hospitals have special little places to go, small little history/museum areas or outdoor gardens, etc. So, the more different experiences the better, and mixed in with shorter times in the waiting room, it can actually be a pretty fun day for a kid overall.
I would not have dared to think to bring my young one into the ICU, certainly not the same day of my surgery. But amazingly enough, I was sitting up, clear as a bell, the evening of when my smiling girl walked in and got to joke around with her before she went home that night. Obviously, hospital policy and discretion supercede. But for my girl, tubes and monitors didn't seem to have any impact. Not much to worry about so long as there was a smiling Daddy talking to her.
That said, we did limit her hospital time during the week I was there, it does get terribly boring for a kid. She visited 4 times I think, not everyday, and usually no longer than an hour or two. We did talk on the phone every morning and night. One of the best things to come out of the whole ordeal for me was the great time she got to spend with her grandparents, who are (normally) long-distance. My girl had never spent a single night without me or my wife before the surgery, but she ended up spending 3 nights without both of us, and 7 without me. I was not at all sure how this would go over, but she handled it great, and had a lot of fun with the grandparents, almost like a vacation. I don't know what exactly they did for fun, never really asked, and didn't really try to prepare them either, they all just sort of worked it out themselves!
Long term, my girl got very used to my limitations and for the most part, not really disappointed at all I couldn't do the usual things. She just wanted to help me get better, doing everything a 2 1/2 year old could think of to encourage and help. She got her pretend stethoscope out very often and playfully yelled at me ("Come on Daddy") to keep walking!
So anyway, sorry for the long post, but guess my basic point is that it will all work out just fine, even with limited planning (I had only a few weeks). If your child is anywhere near that magic age where the imagination kicks into overdrive, like mine was, every experience will be an adventure, very few toys required.
