Information From Medical Records
These do not exactly match what was said to me after the surgery.
Kenobe’s Surgery Day and Death at Brunswick Animal Hospital – 3/29/2022
11:08 AM
28 Minutes after surgery. I received the first text. He was in a recovery kennel but no mention of any temperature drop issue.
Found out later he was in Severe Hypothermia at this time.
11:31 AM
51 Minutes after surgery. Dr. Thompson calls me with her update. No concern, no worries, no mention exactly how low his temperature had dropped during the surgery. They already had his discharge papers ready and told me to pick him up at 3pm.
Everything was fine, at least according to her. All while he was placed in a kennel right after surgery with his temperature continuing to go down. Did the doctor even check on him after surgery before calling me? It does not sound like it. If so, why was the doctor withholding this information making it sound as if everything went great all while he was in severe hypothermia and his temperature continued to go down and was not stabilized? She said nothing about it. She gave him Simbodol and Convenia right after surgery, even though his temperature was around 93F (so they said) and continued to go down after the surgery. I did not find out how serious his temperature was until two weeks after he died. Totally misleading the day of surgery and acting like everything was normal.
12:04 PM
1 Hour, 24 Minutes after surgery. Now I get some indication something was not right. They finally have him out of the kennel and are taking this seriously and warming him up, as they should have done right after surgery, not nearly an hour and a half later.
He was in severe hypothermia (again, as I was only told two weeks later) and continued to lose temperature after surgery. This should have been addressed immediately following surgery. He just had a front leg amputation surgery, this is really not good in this situation. There is no excuse for this. What was going on the whole time?
12:19 PM
I was becoming concerned, so I called them and spoke with a nurse. She gave me no indication that anything was wrong and said Dr. Thompson would call me back.
1:01 PM
This seemed to be taking a while so I was heading out the door to go there when I received this message. Again, no concern. She did not mean to worry me as if everything was just fine. Problem is, she knew it was not. His temperature was still way below normal. There was an issue during and after surgery but acted like I should not be concerned or worry about it because “this is normal and it just happens sometimes”.
1:53 PM
3 Hours, 13 minutes and roughly 52 minutes after telling me they did not mean to worry me, he was basically dead and unconscious. Someone noticed he was not breathing between that text and now. I wonder how long before that call they “just noticed”. What happened to monitoring him the entire time as they claimed in the medical records?
His pulse ox level was down to 65%, it should be above 95%. His temperature all this time never made it back to a normal recovery temperature. Who was watching him, why did it drop so low before they noticed or finally doing something about it right after a surgery they called routine? I was getting ready to go pick him up and was so happy that surgery was over and I could bring him home. She was basically calling me to tell me he was dead because they did not know what to do (her exact words). I can’t put into words how I felt when I heard those words.
2:15 PM
My best friend was no longer with me. Over 3,516 days and nights of caring for and loving him every day, he was gone in 3 hours after assuring me and reassuring me that he would be fine because this was a routine procedure for them and there was nothing to worry about. We do this often.
There are so many inconsistencies that I’m not sure what to believe. Everything came from a personal email and contradicted other statements made. What is the truth? I am an honest person with nothing to hide, no insurance companies to answer to, and no reason to mislead anyone. Who at Brunswick Animal Hospital can tell me the truth? What really happened to Kenobe that day? I told her I wanted a Necropsy but then I was told it would be over a month, they would have to take samples from every organ in his body and that if I wanted his ashes, they would have to cremate him. Naturally, I wanted his ashes. Because this was the first time something like this had happened and totally took me by surprise, I had no idea what to expect and relied on what I was told. But the fact is, it would only take maybe a few weeks or days according to them after a complaint was filed and I would still get his ashes back from the lab anyways if I wanted them and the lab would not have disposed of them. No mention of this from the doctor as if they did not want it done. It seems I was misled and lied to about the time frame and getting his ashes back, knowing I wanted them. Telling me this seconds after calling me to tell me he died when I went in total shock because this was not supposed to happen because he was fine according to them. I had already prepared the house for his recovery. As you can see from the conversations, I had no idea anything serious went wrong during and after her surgery. I’m still not sure what happened that day. Again, I only found out about the temperature drop two weeks after he died, and only through the doctor’s personal email; no one else, including the owner or Southern Veterinary Partners, contacted me. Based on her comments that “this is the lowest I have ever seen,” I question whether it actually went lower. Why was that, he was fine the morning of surgery, his temperature was fine, What did you do to him that day?
What really happened?
What happened to Kenobe?
My sweet boy, whom I miss every day, trusted everyone. You could do anything to him and he would just let you. He did not deserve this, and it bothers me that I do not know what happened that day. All I can say is that he went there, was fine the morning of surgery, and came home in a box.