V
Virginia Robey
Guest
I'm in Pennsylvania. 7 months ago my 100 lb, 13 year old dog hemorrhaged in my apartment. For 19 hours she bled constantly, at one point during the day she was literally spraying blood from her nose. She had started to bleed during the night, so by the time I awoke a significant amount of damage had already been done. To make this story short, my dog had recently been put on the drug Rimadyl. The same day that she started the drug, the vet gave her an injection of dexamethasone. The dog was also supposed to be off buffered aspirin for 2 weeks prior to the start of Rimadyl therapy. The end result was that the dog lost 95% of her platelets, when her platelets crashed to 10,000, she hemorraged. This error was made by a young vet who has since left the practice. The owner of the practice has apologized for these errors but thinks that the responsibility for compensating me for my losses (vet bills, damage to my apartment, etc - around $1500) belongs to Pfizer. Turns out Rimadyl is a very controversial drug (which I didn't know until I went on the FDA's site following the crisis). Pfizer said its not their problem because vets were told how to prescribe Rimadyl, but the Pfizer veterinarian won't make a statement because he "doesn't want to be in the position of criticizing another veterinarian." However, I do have primary sources from Pfizer supporting what I have said above regarding the aspirin and dexamethasone. The vet turned my claim over to his malpractice carrier. I would prefer to settle this thru small claims court. Can I still start a small claims suit and bypass the malpractice carrier? I don't want to spend $1500 to collect $1500. Malpractice cases in animal care are very difficult to pursue, and I would like to get this over with. This was a near death experience for my dog, and my bedroom looked like a crime scene when it was over. The only way to prevent the damage would have been to euthanize the dog. Thank you.