Compassion Over Policy
It was with great disappointment that I am writing this article regarding my extremely unpleasant encounter with Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital.
In the afternoon of Sunday, the 21st of Jan 2007, my dog Mickey had a seizure, which cause him to collapse under the hot sun for a while. When I found him, he already had heat stroke and was not able to move. My partner and I immediately rushed him to Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital to his vet Dr. Dennis Choi, who did a great job in rescuing him. By the end of the day, his temperature was down and he was able to sit up. The only worries we have were his blood platelets; it had dropped from the norm of 120,000 to around 80,000. Dr. Choi told us that due to the heat stroke, he may suffer from loss of blood platelets and if dropped below 50,000, may cause internal bleeding that could possibly die from it. Him being eleven years old doesn’t help this situation.
On Monday morning at about 2.30am, as per my request, the on-call-vet called me to let me know about Mickey’s blood test result. His blood platelets had dropped further and it is not about 60,000. This is not a good sign at all. After speaking to Dr. Choi later on in the early morning, we have decided to bring my other dog in to donate plasma to Mickey, hoping that it will help in his condition. After they took out his blood, I went to the boarding ward to visit Mickey. This is when the horror begins:
When I walk in to the boarding ward, I was shocked to see them boarding all the dogs and cats together in the same room. Imagine how stressful it is for the animals, dogs and cats alike to be put next to each other. How can this help them relax and concentrate in fighting their illness? I left the place with a heavy heart.
In that same evening around 6:30pm, I received a call from Dr. Choi regarding Mickey’s latest blood test. As predicted, his blood platelets have dropped further to now only a little over 20,000. Dr. Choi told me that this evening is very CRITIAL for Mickey and that he may end up bleeding internally and that we should be prepared for that. I ask him what will happen if he starts to bleed and was told that he will die very soon following the bleeding.
After speaking to Dr. Choi, I decided to ask for permission to go spend the night with Mickey hoping that my presence would encourage him to fight this illness and recover, or to be there when he is dying so he won’t have to die alone and feel abandoned. I called the hospital and the receptionist answered the phone and told me only the vet-on-call can make the decision and that she would leave a message for him to call me back when he comes in at 8:30PM.
I waited and waited and by 9:15pm, the call still has not come in, so I decided to call the vet instead. The vet-on-call was Dr. Brian Lee. I explain to him about Mickey’s situation and ask for permission to be with him during this CRITICAL moment of his life, saying that I don’t want him to be alone. To my horror, his reply to me was :”NO! You have already visited him this afternoon; there is no need for you to see him. The hospital is now closed and this is hospital policy. If you really want to be with him, I can let you see him for FIVE MINUTES and you have to leave after that.”
I was totally shocked at what I heard. How could a person who is suppose to be an animal lover say such a thing to an owner who is facing the possibility of loosing his beloved family member. I implored him a few more times and he kept saying no. After trying so many times, sadness turned into anger and I finally hung up the phone and called Animal Recover Hospital at about 9:40PM. The on-call-nurse, Jonathan was very helpful. He called Dr. Jean Paul Ly on the phone and asks for advice and then got the vet-on-call to call me back. Dr Lau, the vet-on-call returned my call very quickly and we went through the whole medical history regarding Mickey and after weighing the pros and cons of transferring him to their clinic, I decided to make the transfer. I’d rather take some of the risk than to let him die alone and felt unwanted.
I called Dr. Brian Lee of Mt Pleasant to let him know that I wanted to transfer Mickey form their hospital to another because he refuse to let me spend time with Mickey during that CRITICAL moment in his life, fighting to live. I also asked for him to prepare his medical information so that the new vet will have all the required information to treat him when he arrives at the new Hospital. He said that he can only print out the blood test results and cannot release any other information. He then says that Dr. Choi is the vet in charge of Mickey and that he has no authority to release the report. I asked for him to contact Dr. Choi regarding this matter because it was very important that the new vet has all the information and the reply I got from him was:” Dr. Choi is off work already and we will not contact him.” I again ask him to please send him a message and again I got the same reply.
After arriving at Animal Recovery at Balestier, the first thing I noticed about their facilities is that the cats and dogs are separated into two different rooms. The rooms and individual compartments that are temperature controlled are very clean and there were no unpleasant smells at all, unlike Mt Pleasant. Dr. Lau, the vet-on-call tried to contact Dr Lee from Mt Pleasant to find out the medication and dosage Mickey has been given. She was put on hold for a long time and then told that he will call her back. We waited patiently and after about 30 minutes, no call from him yet. I got very upset and called there demanding that he return the call and he did eventually.
I spent the night with him at the hospital and that helped him perk up. I got a call from the vet in the next day after they did the blood test saying that his blood platelets have gone up and he is looking much better.
That morning, at around 9:00AM, I received a call from Dr. Choi asking me what had happened and I told him about my unpleasant incident with the vet-on-call. I then called looking for Dr. Tan Hwa Luck, founder of Mt Pleasant Hospital. He was not available so I ask for him to please return my call. I also mentioned that he should speak to Dr. Choi before returning my call so that he would have better understanding of Mickey’s situation.
A few hours later, Dr. Tan called me and instead of an apology from him, he said that it was up to the vet-on-call’s discretion whether to let me stay with my dog or not. He also said that Dr. Lee had reviewed the case before rejecting my request. How was that suppose to happen when he didn’t even call me like he was supposed to and when I called him, he didn’t even had time to review Mickey’s report while speaking to me. He then said to me that Mickey’s condition was serious but not CRITICAL! What is the difference? What was really an appalling remark he made to me was: “How is your dog now? He is better? Then he is not CRITICAL, just serious condition.” What was he trying to tell me? Must Mickey be dead before he would admit that Mickey was in a critical condition? How could he, as a vet said such a horrible thing to me? He also denied that Dr. Choi had mentioned to him that Mickey’s condition was CRITICAL but I later confirmed that Dr. Choi did say to him that Mickey’s condition was indeed CRITICAL! Dr. Choi said to me: “I did tell him that Mickey last night was very CRITICAL for Mickey and I stand by my prognosis!” He outright lied to me. Why can’t he just admit that they were wrong?
I am imploring everyone who cares about their pet’s welfare to consider carefully in the future where to send their pets to in case of emergency. If you do not want your pet to suffer or die alone during their critical moments, you know where not to go.
I would like to thank all the doctors and staffs of Animal Recovery, especially Dr. Lau for an excellent job done. They are truly an establishment that cares for their animal’s welfare and wellbeing and not just concern about getting their job done and collecting payments from their clients.
PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME AT:
jason@aquagemorchids.com if you need more information about this matter.
or space the paragraphs more.
), they have a great sense of responsibility (keep updating you on test results and if they are not in yet, they take the responsibility and apologize for the delays), very knowledgeable on what they are doing and definitely won't make a big fuss over small things. I can't comment on their holding area (but my guess is they are similar to Mount Pleasant) since I've not been in there. But the staff there are friendly and helpful.
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