5/18/2013: "Stability check -its an emergency!". As we looked at
each other with a "this must be bad" look a man in spandex ran in
carrying a dog. We had gotten oxygen hooked up at that point, so I ran
for a mask as the Dr asked him "can you briefly tell me what happened?"
while my fellow techs grabbed the emergency drugs and intubation
supplies. The man responded "I left him in the car while I went for a
hike, I guess it was too hot". He was then led from the room by a CSR
while the Dr started CPR with me giving breaths via the anesthetic
machine's breathing bag. Finally a thermometer beeped and gave us the
news -he was too hot to register, over 115*F. Within minutes he was
dark purple, CPR was not working, so the Dr called us off of him. The
doctor notifed the owner and asked if he wanted to visit with the dog,
he refused, paid for cremation, and left. UPDATE: We got news that
this man was arrested for charges related to this event. Something to
note about this case is that it was in the low 70's in Oakland that day.
It doesn't take super hot weather for temperatures in a car to rise
high enough to kill. ...and what a horrible way to
die!
5/19/2013:
"Stability check on a stray dog who can't walk". A fellow tech went
to get the dog and brought it back. It was a middle aged female bull
terrier -her feet were swollen to twice their normal size and the skin
was badly infected (visible puss between the toes) -you could smell her
from across the room! The nails on several toes had grown in full
circles and embedded themselves in her paw pads. The skin on her inner
thighs was crusted with purulent material and raw. Once cleaned we
could see that much of the skin had cracked and opened up exposing the
red dermis below. She had puncture wounds on her shoulder, hip, and
feet, she was thin and had the muscles of her head had wasted away. She
was also dehydrated. The people who found her were asked if they
wanted to take responsibility for her -a question that is often answered
"no" because it hits people in the pocketbook and her condition was bad
enough that the hit was likely to be pretty substancial. But, the
people said yes, so an IVC was placed and fluids were started, we soaked
her feet in dilute chlorhex solution, trimmed the nails, and cleaned
her feet and wounds as best we could without stressing her out too much.
At the end of the night her new owners came to pick her up and take
her to her new home for the night -she'll be returning tomorrow morning
for further
care
5/19/2013:
"Stability check on a cat, it's an emergency!". We really didn't want
to hear those words ever again much less again the very next day. I
ran to go get it and it turned out to be a cat in a cardboard box. It
was open a little and I could see a large (1cm) puncture above the right
eye that looked old and the cat was covered in dirt and pine needles.
(It seriously looked like it just clawed its way out of the Pet
Cemetary.) I asked if the people know what happened and they said she
"must have been beat up pretty bad" and added that it was a neighborhood
cat. Awesome. So, I brought it in back where the other techs had set
up oxygen and the crash kit and I opened the box. All I could see was
the entire box and the cat moving as if I was seeing a TV station that
wasn't coming in clearly. The cat wasn't moving, everything in the box
was. Once my brain made sense of what I was seeing I realized there
were ants everywhere. Next, I realized they were crawling out of the
wound I had seen earlier. She turned out to have over 10 pucture wounds
all over her face and neck that were necrotic and infested with ants
and maggots. She also had a deep necrotic wound on her foot. We got
word that the people who brought her in approved charges into the
thousands of dollars, but the doctor convinced them that euthanisia was
the most humane option.
5/19/2013:
There were so many stability checks today that only 1 tech and 0
doctors got lunch. VCA provided pizza around 1pm. I finally got a
slice around 5pm. A full day, but I prefer that to standing around
doing nothing. I also got to participate in another large surgery today
for more practice (an exploratory that also ended in euthanasia).
No comments:
Post a Comment