Though I'm angry about this - I'll just stick with the facts and you can make your own judgment.
Two stories:
We took our dog to see the vet to look at a growth on our small Lahsa-nese. Dr. Martin (... Read More
Though I'm angry about this - I'll just stick with the facts and you can make your own judgment.
Two stories:
We took our dog to see the vet to look at a growth on our small Lahsa-nese. Dr. Martin (Sr), at the Bountiful Animal Clinic on 500 W in Bountiful, examined the small growth on the skin about a half inch behind my dog's left eye and said it should be removed. We scheduled surgery to remove it. When the dog was returned to us, to our surprise, the growth was still there, untouched, and Dr. Martin had instead removed a tiny growth on the RIGHT eyelid that we had never even discussed and weren't concerned about. The dog already had eye problems with this eye and was sensitive to general anesthesia -- so we would never have consented to any surgery near the eye itself. We called immediately, expecting, at a minimum, some apology and sympathy. But it was not to be. When asked about the surgical mistake, he first blamed us for not communicating the correct growth clear enough to the receptionist/assistant when we dropped the dog off (what?!). Then he blamed the assistant. We asked the obvious... whether he had even looked at the chart before performing the surgery. He claimed that he had. Yet we saw the chart, and it clearly stated the correct target surgery location. Simple fact, for whatever reason, Dr. Martin operated on the wrong location, and put our at-risk dog under general anesthesia.
Having lost all trust, we asked for our money back so we could take the dog to another vet to have the surgery done properly. He refused to do this with a brusk "I won't do that." But he said he'd remove the correct growth free of charge.
We could have easily sued and won, but didn't want the hassle. I didn't feel good about it at all, but after 6 weeks wearing the cone of shame (the time was extended due to the surgery site becoming infected), and no spare money in the bank, I had the surgery done on the correct growth by Dr. Martin. No general anesthesia was required - though we got no refund for the anesthesia cost difference (I was sick of dealing with them by this time, and just wanted to get out of there). There were no residual problems from this second surgery.
Medical mistakes sometimes happen, I understand that and was completely willing to accept that. But it is the doctor's responsibility to take reasonable measures to assure that they don't, and if they do, to make sure that measures are taken to prevent recurrence. There was no acceptance of responsibility from Dr. Martin, no apology, no sympathy - only a deflection of blame, and there was no indication to me that anything would be done to prevent mistakes like this from happening in the future.
Second story:
Before the surgery incident, our older dog Scout was having trouble walking. Dr. Martin diagnosed Scout as having nerve problems and prescribed an anti-inflammatory and a pain killer. After the botched surgery, we took Scout to another vet, where, after a thorough exam, he was diagnosed with serious heart problems, severe arthritis, and pancreatic cancer. We hadn't realized it, but he was in severe pain and had multiple terminal health problems. The dog died a week later. Obviously, Dr. Martin missed a few things - and Scout suffered for it.
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