Our Experience At Garden State Veterinary Specialists Was A Nightmare
After our pet Allie spent three days at Garden State Veterinary Specialists (GSVS) to get her temperature down and treat the painful swelling in her joints, she was diagnosed with an auto immune disease. We anxiously awaited news that she could be helped and (GSVS) located in Tinton Falls New Jersey gave us the news we were looking for.
Unfortunately just one week after we took her home we had to rush her back to GSVS because she was throwing up blood. Apparently the medicine she was on to control the disease, created a stomach ulcer that had caused internal bleeding.
We had already been through several weeks of watching Allie suffer the discomfort of her illness even before she was finally diagnosed with an auto immune disease.
I remember telling my wife that I didn't want her to suffer unnecessarily. When I expressed my concerns that Allie might be suffering to Dr. Demarco of GSVS, she responded in a manner which left me embarrassed and angry. In a very cold and sarcastic tone Dr. Demarco said "We can always put her to sleep". Dr. Demarco did not discuss anything about her pain or her chances of survival, or her age (13 Years Old), or the fact that the treatment she was under to control her auto immune disease would have to be dramatically cut back (exposing her to high temperatures and severe pain once again) or how weak her blood loss had left her in relation to being able to recover. There was no discussion from anyone about her quality of life and it seemed that we as owners were insensitive to even broach the topic.
Allie was an important part of our family and gave us so much love and joy for over 13 years, so we decided on our own with no help or guidance from GSVS to continue to try and help her.
After four days in intensive care we were told that Allie was well enough to be taken home so she could start her rehabilitation. Dr. Demarco explained that Allie would need homecare for a while and that when we came into to pick her up that someone at the hospital would show us exactly what type of exercises we would have to administer to her.
When we arrived at Garden State Veterinary Specialist's to pick Allie up her right hind leg was buckling over and seemed partially paralyzed. When we asked Dr. Warrington (An Intern), about the problem he said her leg was just weak due to all she had been through. We were so happy to be taking Allie home that we did not question his answer. We paid the the bill and were about half way home when I realized that they never gave us any orientation on how to exercise her legs. Anyway, we had our Allie back and we were determined to get her better.
Once home we proceeded to try and walk her a little so she could "do her stuff" and although she was very weak and barely could squat to pee, she did. She was so brave and wanted to please us so badly as she always has. That night she was tired and we figured we would let her rest only after bringing water to her and squeezing baby food in her mouth so she would have some type of nutrients in her.
It became harder for Allie to walk the next day and we were told by GSVS that "it's going to take time" for her to get her strength back. I called Dr. Pintar of GSVS about her right hind leg getting worse (he didn't even know anything was wrong with it) and he said it sounded like a neurological problem or a spine issue, but that in Allies condition nothing really could be done about it because she was so weak. Here I am thinking what a mess, now she has a neurological or spine problem as well.
We continued to make sure she got her medicine, water and squeezed in baby food whenever we could. We were with her 24 hours a day and never left her side. Since she was back home she never once could get up on her own and never once drank, ate or took her medicine while standing up.
When I took her outside to pee etc... she had to have a sling around her and could not go up or down the stairs. I had to carry her up and down the stairs to her favorite spot to go outside. This was not easy because she weighs about 90 pounds. Once again, she could barely squat and had to pee with a sling around her that held her up.
Her 2nd night with us was the worst. It was 3AM and we could tell she had to pee because she started squirming and became anxious. So we carried her outside and used the sling to support her but now both hind legs were not responding and then her right front leg gave out as well. I supported her by dropping to my knees and placing both arms underneath her for total support. She was so confused and didn't know if it was ok to pee or not and we kept telling her it was ok and she finally did.
We carried her back in the house and she was exhausted. We tried to get her to drink some water but she just wanted to sleep. The next morning was even worse for Allie, she refused all attempts to drink water and we could not get her mouth open for her medicine or even to squeeze the baby food in. I called GSVS and pleaded to speak with someone. I got a call back from Dr. Warrington (An Intern) and I explained our situation. He said that it sounded like a neurological problem or a spine related issue. He suggested we bring her in for testing so that they could determine what course of action to take. However the neurological surgeon was not available until Monday (this was Saturday), but that an Intern studying under the neurologist might be available.
I then requested for a real doctor not an intern to call me, but no doctors were available for the whole weekend. Apparently the doctors who cared for my pet all week are off on the weekends and only interns were available.
We were now completely helpless and faced with the decision of bringing her back to GSVS or not. We decided to call Allie's life long veterinarians at Berg Animal Hospital. Dr. Berg called us back promptly and seemed to agree with GSVS about further tests. When I explained the chain of events since we brought Allie back home he then listened to more of our concerns regarding Allie's suffering. We were so lost and felt so helpless, I finally asked Dr. Berg a simple question; "At What Point Do We Stop Doing This To Her" ? "When Is It Too Much" ? Dr. Berg went on to tell us a story about a personal experience he had with one of his own pets and suddenly it placed everything into perspective for us. The point I believe he was making was that sometimes pet owners have to ultimately decide what's best for their pet, not their doctors.
Allie had basically let us know that enough was enough and for the first time in her life she refused medicine, water and food. My wife noticed slight traces of blood coming from her nose and we then immediately brought her to our family veterinarian (Berg), instead of Garden State Veterinary Specialists. We explained that we wanted Dr. Berg to examine her and we were deeply concerned about her quality of life. They welcomed our request and were kind and sensitive to our situation.
We arrived at Berg Animal Hospital where Dr. Berg examined Allie and it was clear she was in bad shape. Dr. Berg had commented that her condition had spread to her head. We had seen enough and I believe that after Dr. Berg examined Allie that he now knew what we were trying to explain to him on the phone.
Less than 36 hours after bringing Allie home we now had to make the most difficult decision of our lives.
Allie's lifelong veterinarian (Dr. Berg, Berg Animal Hospital) helped us in her final moments and was sensitive and considerate during our struggle. I placed my head along side Allie's while Dr. Berg finally administered the last injection she would ever get. It was peaceful for her and very humane. It was an incredibly heart wrenching experience that words can't describe.
I would like to think that there is a place we all go when our time ends and that Allie is there now playing and sniffing, completely pain free.
We hope our experience helps people that might be in the same situation we were in, feeling completely helpless and abandoned by the veterinarians that were under her care.
GSVS is not a bad place, but it certainly was not the right place for Allie during her illness. Quality of life discussions were not part of her treatment and when we brought up her quality of life we were made to feel guilty about even mentioning it. It was impossible to speak with the right person when we needed to. There were so many different people we had to deal with, they charged us for treatments we never approved. We will never know what happened to her during those four days at GSVS. We feel that they sent us home with a pet that was primed for death not recovery. They still have not responded with any answers to all of our questions.
Our experience with our lifelong veterinarian was completely different than with GSVS. There's something positive to be said about dealing with the people that had cared for her through out her whole life. Unfortunately Berg Animal Hospital does not have 24 hour care.
In the end with the luxury of hind site and having gone through all this with Allie, we believe that some institutions are better suited in helping with these scenarios than other institutions. We hope that Allie's story can make people realize that doctors don't know everything and they certainly might not know what's best for our pets. In addition it probably makes sense to research options on where best to care for your pet.
As true family members we know our pets better than anyone else could possibly know them. We can often make better decisions for our pets than doctors can when it comes to what we put them through.
It's ok to question a veterinarians advice or medical recommendations and it's imperative that we ask our veterinarians to weigh all the variables surrounding our pets overall ability to withstand a proposed medical treatment.
Most importantly we should never feel guilty or embarrassed about asking a doctor to measure our pets possible suffering and chances of survival concerning whatever medical strategy they recommend for them.
We believe we tried our best with Allie, but are disappointed with how we were treated and possibly misled by GSVS during this difficult time. We believe that Garden State Veterinary Specialists are too removed from that special relationship between what our normal everyday veterinarians give us. GSVS seem overly busy, uses too many interns with limited experience and are part of an institution that builds it's business on referrals from other good doctors pre-existing client relationships. They also appear to monetarily exploit the fact that most people who bring their pets to them are already committed to trying to do everything they can to help their pets with open wallets.
Quality of life is a subjective topic that can be argued by everyone, but that's exactly the point. As pet owners let us consider quality of life even if the doctors caring for our pets may have forgotten about it.
Pets Quality Of Life
