We have been clients at Edgewood Animal Clinic since it opened in 1994, and about a dozen of our pets have been treated there in those 23 years.
Recently our vet, who started the clinic, retired and ... Read More
We have been clients at Edgewood Animal Clinic since it opened in 1994, and about a dozen of our pets have been treated there in those 23 years.
Recently our vet, who started the clinic, retired and Dr. Jason Kimball took charge.
We took our 2 1/2 year old, healthy dog, Aife, to Edgewood to be spayed by Dr. Jason Kimball on Tuesday May 23rd, 2017.
Ten hours later Aife was dead with a large amount of blood in her chest cavity.
Dr. Kimball told us that during the procedure he accidentally cut a "tiny hole" in her diaphragm -- then said it was 2 inches -- which he stitched up.
I sat with her for 3 hours while I was continuously reassured that she was "breathing beautifully" and going to be "fine." Unbeknownst to me she was actually dying while I sat with her.
We know that traumatic events can occur during routine surgeries, or that even a young, healthy animal can die for an unknown reason due to an operation.
Vets are human beings who make mistakes sometimes, like all of us do. What defines a good vet is how a mistake or tragic event is dealt with.
When Dr. Kimball made an x-ray at about 5pm, he told me Aife had blood and air in her chest and he had no idea where it was coming from and said he wanted to transport her immediately to the Emergency Veterinary Hospital.
I agreed to follow the transport vehicle to EVH. The drive from Edgewood to EVH usually takes about 15 minutes.
Instead it lasted over half an hour. I followed them through the streets of Eugene while Sue received a call from them stating they were lost.
Do you want a vet who knows the best route from their clinic to the Emergency Hospital? A mapquest link to EVH is available on the Edgewood website.
At EVH, the vets gave Aife a transfusion and prepped her for surgery to find out what was bleeding.
She never made it to the surgical table. She went into cardiac arrest as the last of her blood pumped out into her chest cavity and she died.
Dr. Kimball waited more than 40 hours to contact us following her death despite getting updated calls from EVH throughout their struggle to keep Aife alive. She died at 9:30pm on Tuesday.
At 4:00pm on Thursday, Dr. Kimball began his sympathy call (Sue spoke with him) by saying he had waited so long because he was depressed for two days.
He continued talking about his own suffering and also blamed the woman (his vet tech.) who had been driving the transport vehicle for getting lost.
When Sue finally got to express her feelings, she told him we were upset that he minimized the hole he made in Aife's diaphragm and the gravity of her condition.
Following the phone call I went to Edgewood to get copies of our pets' records so we can begin our search for a new vet.
I was told Dr. Kimball was finishing up his report on Aife and it would take about 20 minutes. While I waited for an hour in the lobby, the other vet at the clinic expressed her condolences for our loss.
Except for the woman who made the copies, no other staff person spoke to me and I never saw Dr. Kimball, though he knew I was there.
I brought home the copies of both Aife and Nuala's files. Nuala's file was in chronological order, but Aife's was in complete disarray with the report of the surgery that caused her death buried in the middle.
We were also surprised to find the confidential records of three other Edgewood clients (other peoples' pets) among the papers.
The most shocking piece of information we learned from the medical files of both Edgewood and EVH was that Dr. Kimball reported to EVH that Aife's surgery was "uneventful" and that Aife's diaphragm was "intact at that time."
However, EVH discovered a deep incision in Aife's belly extending into her chest cavity and a large amount of blood surrounding her lungs.
Wouldn't you want a vet who will level with you about your pet's condition, especially if your animal is dying or has a slim chance of survival so you can make an informed and compassionate decision about whether to end their life with dignity rather than have them die in a hospital kennel?
Please choose your vet carefully. Read Less