badvets

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Pets are part of the family. Pet owners are increasingly becoming health care advocates for their pets and are no longer trusting their veterinarians completely. Pet owners have told stories of their pets getting drugs that are inappropriate. Pet owners are also finding that many veterinarians are paid by drug companies to promote their drugs. As a result, veterinarians give more priority to profit over the best health care for our pets. But no more. Pet owners are fighting back and demanding answers when their pets become sick, injured, or die as a result of veterinary negligence and malpractice. This site will post articles about pet owners who fight back and file lawsuits against veterinarians in hopes of giving strength to people who have become victims of sloppy medical care for their pets. Only then, can veterinarians become accountable to pet owners when things go wrong. Pet owners deserve to have their concerns addressed by the veterinarian, either in person, or in court.

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This site will hopefully give pet owners the confidence to hold veterinarians accountable when their pets are injured or die as a result of negligence and malpractice.

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FIGHT BACK!

LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST SYLVANIA VETERINARY HOSPITAL

By Melissa Burden

   SYLVANIA - A south Toledo woman filed a lawsuit against the Sylvania Veterinary Hospital in Sylvania Municipal Court for negligence and breach of contract.

    The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 19 by Kelly J. Kaczala, of Toledo, alleges that the hospital, which claimed to be the only veterinary hospital in northwest, Ohio to provide round-the-clock care with a veterinarian on call for emergencies, did not provide those services to her 12-year-old dog, Mattie.

   The lawsuit also states the hospital administered a drug to the dog that its medical history showed it could not tolerate.

   The hospital failed to "adequately review the dog's medical history, prior to surgery, resulting in the administration of a drug, Acepromazine, to which the dog had a history of adverse reactions, including seizures," the lawsuit says.

   The dog, which had surgery at the hospital on Oct. 21, 2005, died there in the middle of the night on Oct. 22, 2005.

   According to the lawsuit, the hospital promised Kaczala that it would have an around-the-clock veterinary technician to care for her pet, in addition to having a doctor on call after hours. However, the dog was not provided around-the-clock care by a veterinary technician, nor was a technician present at the facility at all times, according to the lawsuit.

    "Additionally, a doctor was not called in to assist the pet prior to its death late in the evening of Oct. 21, 2005, and in the early morning hours of Oct. 22, 2005," the lawsuit says.

   To date, Sylvania Veterinary Hospital, on its Web site, lists 24/7 services as a reason to bring a pet there.

    "If your pet is boarded or hospitalized, isn't it great to know that it is never alone," the Web site states. "No other pet caregiver in NW OHio can make this claim."

    In addition, the lawsuit alleges the hospital administered a separate drug, Domitor, "in a manner which a veterinarian of ordinary skill, care and dilligence would not have administered," and that it failed to administer Antisedan, a drug that specifically reverses the adverse reactions of Domitor.

    Kaczala, reached at home, said she had taken the dog to the hospital for the first time on Oct. 19, 2005, for surgery because the facility advertises 24/7 care and a veterinarian on call for emergencies - services her regular veterinarian did not provide.

    Kaczala said she filed the lawsuit because the hospital "should have been more careful" with her dog.

   "The Sylvania Veterinary Hospital was sloppy," said Kaczala. "Mattie was special. She deserved better care."

    Kaczala, who paid the hospital $1,682.57, is seeking compensatory damages, as well as pre-and post-judgment interest and costs, according to the lawsuit.

    Dr. Robert Esplin, owner of the hospital, did not comment on the lawsuit.

   This article appeared in the Sylvania News Herald.

 

 

 

 

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