A tragic event has led to a campaign for pet owners to have the right to redress when a veterinary practice is negligent or fails to follow the highest standards of practice.
The campaign, called ‘Justice For Ted’, is being spearheaded by Sarah and Christopher Deadman, following the tragic death of Ted, their Great Dane, who was taken to a veterinary cover practice after displaying classic signs of bloat. The Deadmans phoned the emergency vet, explaining the symptoms and advising the vet of their belief that Ted was suffering from bloat and and asking if they could bring him in for treatment straight away. The emergency vet told them that they would need to pay a deposit before the vet would actually agree to see Ted.
On arrival Ted was still in distress and the vet agreed that it could be bloat, but due to the fact that his abdomen was not obviously distended, concluded that he may have been suffering from some other as yet unidentified gastric problem. The vet did tell Mr Deadman that it could be bloat hidden behind the ribcage. Ted was admitted as a critical patient and the Deadman’s gave consent for x-rays to be taken. They were told he would be under hourly observation.
The vets asked for a deposit of £700 to be paid, but as this substantial sum was not available Mr Deadman paid £400, before leaving Ted in ‘safe hands’. Ted was admitted at 9:20pm but the x-rays were not taken until 4am. The vet told Mr and Mrs Deadman she suspected tumours that had ruptured on the spleen but none were seen on the x-rays and finally he was taken into surgery at 5:57am. At ten past eight in the morning Ted was recovering in theatre following the removal of his spleen. Ted’s heart had stopped during surgery, but he was revived. Mrs Deadman called the practice at 8:12am and was told Ted had a 50/50 chance of recovery.
Sarah Deadman told Our Dogs, ‘I arrived at the vets and after being told to wait for around five minutes in reception. I was met by the vet and taken into a side room where the vet told me that Ted was brain-dead, the machines he was attached to were supporting his life, and he wouldn’t know I was there. I entered the dog ward and was confronted with a room full of people, there were two vets, and four veterinary nurses. At the end of the room, laying 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. I went to him and said 'Hello Teddy, what have they done to you mate?' It was then that the heart monitor started to beep faster and the lines on the machine started to spike. One of the vets present turned the monitor off.
‘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, with two syringes, sitting to the side of Ted. She started to fiddle around with a clear tube that was coming from the blue bandages that were around his front leg. I remember thinking 'what are you doing, stop messing about with him, just leave him be'. She plunged the syringe into the line and Ted started to gag, I asked what's wrong with him? Why is he doing that? Has he gone? I did not realise she was putting him to sleep. I had not signed a consent form agreeing to this.
Devastated
‘She inserted another syringe of liquid, and I asked again - what's the matter with him, has he gone? She said 'yes, he's gone'. I asked why is he doing that? Why is he making that noise? I was told 'it’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 - quick!' The syringe was returned to the vet and she administered the injection. It was after this that Ted’s eye softened and started to close, the third eyelid came across his eye. I knew then that he had gone.’
As Mrs Deadman stood up to leave the vet she said that she would have to settle the bill for the intensive care he had received from them from 8:15 am that morning, the total to be settled immediately was £1,067.15. Mrs Deadman told us, ‘I am standing by the body of my beloved dog who is laying on the kennel floor and before I had got chance to get my breath and take what had happened in I am being I'm being pounced on for money! I went into reception carrying Ted’s collar, I was completely devastated, couldn't even remember my pin number.’
The total bill came to £2492.30.
‘When I asked the vet on my departure from the surgery I asked her why did this happen? She said like you I thought it was bloat. My question is, if she thought it was bloat on admission, during and after hospitalisation why did she not carry out any of the tests to confirm her suspicions? In the vets’ notes says that at 4am she she was going to x-ray in case bloat was hidden behind the ribcage. Ted had a suspected splenic torsion (I have since spoke to another vet) his spleen was enlarging and pushing into his diaphragm causing breathing difficulties. he was in that kennel for seven hours, all the while his spleen was filling with blood - it was only when it ruptured that she acted. If she had x-rayed she would have seen the enlarged spleen, she could have saved him. What also puzzles me is that she told my husband that she had x-rayed the abdomen and couldn't see much because of all the blood. This led her to perform the further tests where she drew blood from his abdomen. The observation notes stop around 4 am - she rang us at 5:20 am to ask us if she could x-ray the chest. From 4 am until 6am - when he was finally taken into theatre - Ted was bleeding out internally from a ruptured spleen, he didn't stand a chance.’
The same vets (which we cannot name for legal reasons) was responsible for another dogs death reported in Our Dogs. Colin and Veronica Hull’s cavalier bitch Hattie died from complications arising from a pyometra which was left untreated until it was too late. Again money was demanded before treatment was begun and Mr and Mrs Hull were left very distressed when they realised the lack of proper care given to Hattie, led to her death. Their total bill was £1783!
Petition
Chris and Sarah Deadman have now set up an online petition and hope to have paper copies at Crufts for people to sign to gain support for their campaign. Ted was used as a model for Holly and Lil’s dog wear company, who are supporting the campaign.
The campaign is attracting a number of high profile supporters including Dr Bob Spink MP, who says: ‘As a life long dog lover, having bred bearded collies and now with two gorgeous grey hounds, I know how important it is to have confidence in vets. We are lucky to have one of the best vet services in the world, but we need to know that, if things do go wrong, there is a fair and properly regulated complaints procedure. I have raised this in Parliament as part of the superb Justice for Ted campaign and I warmly congratulate Sarah Deadman and everyone who is backing this campaign.’
Matthew Watkinson, a well known vet who is highly critical of the lack of complaint procedures and disciplinary actions for clients of vets who put financial considerations before the care and welfare of pets like Ted is a supporter of the campaign. ‘Like Sarah and Chris, I am also very concerned about the regulation of the veterinary profession. Indeed, after five years studying and eight years as a farm animal vet, I am still struggling to work out whether there is any regulation at all. There are no mandatory continuing professional development requirements, no mandatory clinical competence checks and no mandatory practice standards for example. In fact, 40% of veterinary practices rarely or never even conduct employee appraisals and when you combine this with the fact that veterinary surgeons have complete freedom to attempt whatever surgical and medical treatments they like, it really is hard to see any regulation at all.
‘The whole system seems to be set up not to find cowboys and quacks and I think it is high time people started challenging the status quo. The veterinary profession has been living off the reputation of James Heriott for far too long. I don’t know whether Ted would have survived with a different approach I must admit, but I do know this: if his protracted death becomes a catalyst for change within the veterinary profession, it will not have been in vain.’
For more information about the campaign and petitions readers can find this at www.justiceforted.com
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