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My dog recently passed away from a tumor that ruptured in his spleen. I am worried there were errors in his care.
On Monday he was acting very uncomfortable and not himself. Brought him in, they couldn't find any problems. Checked all vitals and couldn't find anything wrong (in hindsight they missed that a tumor ruptured and he was bleeding internally)
On Wednesday he was not better. Didnt want to walk, eat, ect but same symptoms as Monday so we thought he maybe had the flu.
On Thursday, he went into shock and couldn't stand up. We rushed him to ER.
They said tumor on his spleen ruptured and he lost a lot of blood, which caused him to go into shock
He needed blood transfusions to stabalize him before surgery to stop bleeding.
He went into surgery to remove the tumor and his spleen and stop the bleed. They gave him so much anesthesia his heart stopped.
They resuscitated him and got through procedure but also apparently "nicked" his diaphrapm during surgery.
They told us tumors on spleen are usually cancerous and very aggressive so they would send out to lab and if it's cancer he'd have 3-6 months to live.
After surgery his recovery was slow, his kidney levels were high and he was in rough shape. He had breathing problems requiring oxygen, also. They said he would be in hospital for a minimum of 5 days.
After 36 hours it was looking very bad. He was very uncomfortable, stuggling to breathe, couldn't stand, ect so we had to make the gut wrenching decision put him to sleep.
Today the vet called me and told me they lost his spleen and tumor. He said it was a hospital error and they couldn't find it and it is lost. No fedex tracking or anything! Now we won't ever know if he had cancer or not.
What course of action do I have legally at this point? They nicked his diaphragm, gave him too much anesthesia, lost his spleen and tumor biopsy and now we will never know. I think it was poor service and some fatal decisions made.
Plus the whole point of removing his spleen and tumor was to determine if he had cancer!
any suggestions/insight would be greatly appreciated as his surgery and total bills were almost $9k. I'm not the suing type but would appreciate any advice you can provide.
It is terrible. I would say though that it probably would not have made any difference in the world. Bleeding tumors of the spleen are often hemangiosarcoma (more so in some breeds) and the prognosis is terrible. Removing the spleen is also a very dangerous surgery.
If they gave you a lot of hope before surgery then I would really take them to task for putting you and the dog through the procedure. I have been through three with hemangio (but it is very common in my breed nowadays) and always thought the surgery was not worth the suffering.
Sorry for your loss and what you have gone through.
tjpatte..All I can say is what I would do...I wouldn't pay no bill...that's for sure.
I'd let THEM take me to court.
I knew a human who had her diaphragm "nicked"...she barely survived.
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