I found a neat site on YouTube while looking for information on the kind of mini-whipple surgery my son had. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ldU2txNju0 (Except he did not have any of his small intestine removed.)
Basically, this is a description of surgery using Playdough with a mother describing it to her child. And there seem to be quite a few of these videos by the same person--all using playdough body parts to describe various types of surgery. I really don't think it is gory, considering the materials and the simple explanations to a very young child. I also looked at the one for a thyroidectomy, since I am having a small nodule removed from my parathyroid in June.
The hernia one is actually kind of cute!