Please help.

[DKrahn]

CA.

This is the closest matched forum for my situation that I could find. I understand that many of you have much more serious matters posted here. I, in no way, want to compare the severity of my problem with yours. So, in advance, I apologize if I am in the wrong area.

My situation is in regards to Veterinarian malpractice. We have an AKC Doberman 1 1/2 years of age that was run over by a truck in our yard - the dogs legs were under the tire of the parked vehicle and the vehicle rolled over him. We took him to the vet hospital they took X-rays and determined that he had one broken leg. The break was a pretty good break and they said that a pin would be necessary etc... they gave a quote of $1,500-$1,700 - that is if the animal's bladder was not ruptured - they would know if it was or not later on (if the animal was able to urinate or not). The accident happened Thursday aprox. 1:00pm. they said he would need to stabilize before they could operate - which would likely take place that evening or the next day. I called the next morning - they advised that the animal had gone through surgery (the bladder was fine) everything went well - they said that it was a very long surgery and the only thing we would need to worry about is brain damage due to the loss of blood and the drugs during the procedure. The doctor did say, that it is a very remote possibility and in her career she has never seen it - but she wanted to warn me about all the possibilities. She advised that the animal was still under and would be for a couple more hours and he would need to stay overnight and we can pick him up in the morning. We went on to talk about the fact that the animal would need to be isolated from other animals for about 2 months - she suggested to buy a dog run for him - etc. About 10pm that evening we received a call stating that the animal had died due to cardiac arrest - They could not give me a very good answer as to why the animal would have died - they just told me his heart had stopped beating, they tried to re-vive him for 10 minutes but nothing. Then transferred me to the front office to discuss the remainder of the bill. They were nice and not rude in the slightest. I just feel that the animal made it through the surgery ok and hours later he died? Was it a matter that they overdosed him on something or were not paying as strict attention as they should have? We loved this dog very much and my family is crushed that this has happened. What recourse do I have here?

[ellencee]

My sympathy to you and your family on the loss of your pet family member.

Dogs, as well as other animals, respond as humans do to injury. Your dog was seriously injured and had to recover some before he could even have surgery. More likely than not, your dog was in severe physical shock from the trauma. Shock can kill all by itself, no other injury required.

Add to the trauma, and the probable shock, the stress of long surgical procedures requiring lengthy anesthesia, and it is not difficult to understand the death of your dog. His body simply could not withstand the stressors placed upon it and took the next step in the natural process and simply quit functioning.

Remember him well.

EC