My dog bled to death 2 hours after leaving veterinary practice

A question about : My dog bled to death 2 hours after leaving veterinary practice

My little dog has died on 14/12/12 bleeding to death just two hours after I have brought him home from a routine biopsy on his thorax. He was tightly wrapped in a pressure bandage and I could not see that he was bleeding to death as the padding under the bandage was very thick. When I went to collect him my vet said that he was fine his blood result were good he was just slightly anemic and the lump on his thorax was just filled with fluid and some blood. After hearing that all was good you can imagine my shock when he just died 2 hours later. Next morning I took his body to different vet and had him send to Royal College for post mortem. I also obtained from the first vet his blood results and was horrified to see that his platelets count was only 14. His blood had no ability to clot. The vet never double checked this. She put it down to platelets clumping. RCVS do not think that this was negligent enough to class as professional misconduct and closed my complaint. Do I stand a chance in court for negligence?

Best answers:

• 14/12/12 - almost 10 months ago. And OP has started 2 other threads which are "sob stories" during his/her forum history.
  Cynical - moi?
• Sounds a right bloody nightmare
• Sorry but I have to concur with the others here. I can't see much of a case.
• Being a pet owner and animal lover myself, (3 cats, 1 dog at present), my advice is as that hard as it might be, is to try and put it behind you.
  It might take months/years to get any legal decision fron a court, and even if it went in your favour it wouldn't do anything to ease what you are currently feeling.
  Yes, the vet may have made an error, but in the end, he or she is only human and may well make mistakes but as most people who go into the vetinary profession only do so because they have an affinity towards animals, I can't imagine that they would knowingly put any animal at risk and what occured was either an unexpected complication or an unforseen human error.
• Thank you for all your replies . When I said RCVS did not find it negligence I meant they did not consider it Professional Misconduct. They do not deal with negligence. It took them 8 months to investigate and close my complaint that is why I am thinking of taking court action now. I have approached four other veterinary surgeons and they all said ( I got it in writing)they would not proceed with any surgery without double checking the platelets count. If RCVS does not deal with negligent vets who does. Only courts. I feel that I have killed my dog by taking him to that vet and paid them a lot of money for it.
• Justice for my dog.We all make mistakes and should take responsibility for them especially when life was lost because of it. It seems to me that the veterinary profession is untouchable and vets who are negligent are still in their profession as people are afraid to take action.
• It's very sad.
  What do you want to happen?
• Would you talk that way about a human being?
• Maxie was little Chihuahua. He was my mum's dog who died 7 years ago and I have looked after Maxie ever since. He was not replaceable for that reason. I had and still have two other dogs when Maxie joined us. After 10 months there does not seem to be any closure of this for me. Everyday I think Why didn't she double checked the result ? Why didn't she ask senior vet who was available for her opinion? Would she have done the same if it was her Dog? Maybe in court I could get these answers.
• A horrible thing to have happened but getting answers won't bring the dog back. You may need to consider counseling to help you cope with your loss.
• As far as I am concerned my vet was in Breach of Contract. This means quote "When you engage the services of veterinarian you are entering into a contract which is likely to have implied into it a term requiring the vet to act with reasonable skill and care in the practice of his/her craft. If the vet acts in a manner in which other reasonably skilled vets wouldn't act then he/she breaches the contract"
  These are some replies I had from other vets:
  Vet 1 " I would absolutely be repeating the platelets count before moving with any surgery and possibly having a pathologist look at the blood slide to determine if this is real before taking any risk with your beloved friend..."
  Vet 2 " I myself cannot imagine being comfortable moving forward with whose results..."
  Vet 3 "If the platelets level have been so low that it would be advisable
  for the vet to examine the blood smear before any operation...
  Vet 4" I can only say that I would not have done surgery until finding out why that count was so low and correcting it..."
  The bottom line is if different vet dealt with my dog he still would be alive. How can I just let it go ?