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Ted's Story

“The out of hours veterinary practice claim that they were not clinically negligent is by any objective measure, unsustainable. The RCVS regard ‘negligence’ as the act or omission of a veterinary surgeon. We contend that the out of hours veterinary practice (unable to name for legal reason) were negligent through their failure to treat Ted as an emergency case upon admission to their care. He was presented as a critical patient and therefore the delay of seven hours (as evidenced in their hospitalisation notes) before any clinical intervention was taken can be nothing other than negligence on their part.”

Sarah Deadman

Sunday 17th January 2010 - Treatment received at an out-of-hours practice (unable to name for legal reasons) in Witham, Essex.

20:15 Ted had his dinner, about an hour later, was demanding to go into the garden, he was refusing to come in. When he did eventually come back to the house, he was in obvious distress;

* He had breathing difficulties;
* His body was arched and his chest was enlarged;
* He was trying to be sick and was foaming at the mouth;
* He was pacing and did not want to lay down;
* He was also trying to drink water, and
* He was very distressed

We immediately telephoned the emergency vet and told them that we suspected Ted had bloat and we needed to bring him straight in. We were advised that we would need to pay a deposit before they could see him, we said fine and an appointment was made, we left for the vet.

21:10 On arrival to the vet, Ted was still in distress, except now he was also groaning in pain. Her examination showed he had a heart rate of 174, respiratory rate 28, temperature 39.2C, his mucus membrane (gums) were red.

She agreed that it could be bloat, but due to the fact that his abdomen was not obviously distended, concluded that it he may have been suffering from some other as yet unidentified gastric problem. Although she did say that the bloat could be hidden behind the rib cage.

Christopher signed the consent handed over £400, they wanted £700 but at the time he didn't have that kind of money. They took what he had.

Ted was admitted as a critical patient, we were told that it would be best if Ted were kept in for monitoring. She told us it would be hourly observations. We gave consent for any x-rays etc to be done.

The hospitalisation charts show that Ted was NOT on hourly observations; from 12:00 p.m. onwards he was checked at 12:30, 02:30 am and 04:00 am.

From what I can gather from the notes, Ted was then put on fluids, a band was fitted around his abdomen and was left in a kennel, and bloods were taken for testing.

From the notes I received subsequently bloods were taken at 21:52 pm 22:01 pm and then nothing until 04:09 am - how on earth would this show anything?

00:03 I telephoned the vet, asked how he was doing. Conversation was the same as earlier - except she did say the lactate in his blood was high, but the PCV was 47% so no real indication that there was anything going wrong internally. Would probably be better if he stayed there with him for further monitoring. I agreed, because if anything did happen 'he is in the right place'.

'What I didn't realise until after I received his hospitalisation chart was that the blood test she was referring to was taken 9 minutes after the first - over 2 hours earlier.

12:30 pm his HR was down to 108, his Respiratory rate was 20 - 32. Temp 38.67C. Girth the same.

02:30 am Ted's heart rate was up to 140, his respiratory rate was down to 12, no recording for his temp - no mention of girth. Still no action was taken Ted was left for a further 1 and half hours - which by this time it was probably too late for Ted.

04:00 am CRT<1, Heart rate 200, temp 39.27C, Respiratory Rate 16, Abdomen no larger than before. Ran bloods - lactate normal.

It was at this point 7 HOURS AFTER ADMISSION that she decided to take Ted for an x-ray, she said in her notes that there was no gas in the stomach but, the fact that she couldn't see much on the x-ray would indicate fluid in the abdomen. She performed a abdocentesis, drew blood from 3 different places, this blood did not clot, 'indicating haemoabdomen'.

05:20 am (1 hour 20 minutes after his 'crash' at 04:00 am). We received a phone call asking if she could perform a further x-ray on his chest, all the indications were Ted had tumours on his spleen which had ruptured, they would need to x-ray to see the extent of the tumours and / or how far they had spread.

05:57 am Received another phone call, no masses were seen on the x-ray, she was taking Ted into theatre. In surgery they found that the spleen was enlarged but with no obvious masses. Samples were taken for histology. The spleen was removed. The liver was difficult to visualise due to the amount of blood but no tumours were seen or felt. All other organs appeared normal.

Towards the end of surgery, Ted's heart stopped. He was given compressions and adrenaline and his heart eventually resumed although his temperature had plummeted to 35C.

The hospital notes show that at one point during this period Ted was only taking 6 breaths a minute.

08.10 am I called the vets she had finished the op but was still in the theatre, she had removed the spleen, and there was no evidence of any tumours. She told me that during the operation Ted's heart had stopped but they had managed to get it going again. Ted had received a blood transfusion and would probably need another one; I said fine 'do what you have to do'. She told me that he had a 50/50 chance of recovery.

09.11 am Called vets again and was told that his recovery was abnormal when I said 'is he dying?' she said yes. I told her that I would be leaving immediately.

10:00 am (approx) Arrived at the vets and after being told to wait for around 5 minutes in reception. I was met by the vet and taken into a side room who told me that he was brain-dead, the machines he was attached to were supporting his life, and he won't know I'm there.

I entered the dog ward and was confronted with a room full of people there were two vets, and 4 veterinary nurses. At the end of the room, lying on the floor, half hanging out of a kennel was Ted. He was covered in blankets; one veterinary nurse was holding a blanket over his back end. He had a tube inserted in his throat, which he was gagging against. He was having a blood transfusion and he was also attached to a drip. It was such a horrible sight that I actually retched and turned away - I couldn't believe that this was my dog.

How he looked on the floor that day will never leave me. He didn't look peaceful; he didn't look asleep, in fact he looked quite the opposite. His eye was staring - I can only equate it to a 'shark eye', his ears were held back, I tried to stroke them back down, but they kept going back, I don't care what they tell me - he knew I was there, when I said 'hello teddy, what have they done to you mate? 'The heart monitor that was beeping steadily started to beep faster and the lines on the machine started to spike. It was at this point that one of the veterinary staff present that morning turned the monitor off. How can a brain dead dog react to my voice?

I have to be honest that at this point I had no idea what was going on around me; I was completely focused on Ted. The nurse that had been sitting in the corner had gone, and suddenly there was a vet sitting to the side of Ted, she had with her two syringes. She started to fiddle around with a clear tube that was coming from the blue bandages that were around his front leg. I remember feeling irritated with her I was thinking 'what are you doing? Stop messing about with him'. She inserted the syringe into the line and Ted started to gag, I said what's wrong with him? Why is he doing that? Has he gone? She inserted another syringe of liquid, and I said again - what's the matter with him, has he gone?She said 'yes, he's gone'. I said why is he doing that? Why is he making that noise? She said 'that's his heart twitching'. She then took her stethoscope, and listened to his heart, she took the syringe that she just used and said to the person standing behind me - 'I need another 30mls' The syringe was returned to the vet and she administered the injection.

It was after this that Teds eye finally softened and started to close, the third eyelid came across his eye. I knew then that he had gone.

After I said goodbye to Ted, I stood up. The vet appeared at my side, she said that I would have to settle the bill for the intensive care he had received from them from 08:15 am that morning the total to be settled immediately was - £1,067.15, I would need to pay the girls in reception. She then told me that I would need to ring Resting Pets to arrange collection of his body and his cremation, she advised me that it would be a separate cost arranged separately with Resting Pets. This conversation was held within 6ft of Ted's lifeless body. I wasn't even given a chance to get my breath back before I was literally pounced on for money.

I went into reception carrying Teds collars, I was completely devastated, I couldn't even remember my own pin number. I was handed a Resting Pet leaflet as my payment was processed. I turned to leave and found my way blocked by the out of hour vet. She said ' would you like to come with me? I'd like to answer any questions you may have.' I think I may have actually said thank you! She took me into the room, I said 'why did this happen?' She said 'like you I thought it was bloat, now, I'm afraid you are going to have settle our bill, you have just paid for the care Ted received this morning from this Veterinary Hospital. Now you need to settle the bill for the emergency treatment Ted received last night I said how much is that? She said £1025.15. It is payable immediately.

The total amount I paid on that day including his cremation was £2772.30

When I contacted Resting Pets to arrange collection they said the practice had already made the arrangements. When I asked for his body to be held as I wanted a postmortem, they said he had already been cremated.

20/04/2006 - 18/01/2010