Is this normal practice for a vet practice?

[CormorantStrikesBack]

So this hasn’t happened to me but has happened locally to someone and it’s my vet practice so I’m very worried.

Her dog needed surgery and had a phone call to say the dog had had a cardiac arrest, they did CPR for an hour but the dog died. The owner wasn’t happy and asked to speak to the practice director about what happened and they admitted a vet nurse had give the dog morphine and had messed up the dose/decimal point and given the dog 10x the dose.

The vet had given a verbal order to the nurse, so nothing written down and no 2 person check. Solicitors have been involved and compensation offered but that doesn’t bring the dog back

Im really worried as I left my last vet due to my dog having a cardiac arrest and dying after a routine dental, they found her dead in the cage in the recovery room. I always believed there was some serious neglect which happened there so changed vets. And now this has happened at the new vets!

would a nurse normally give drugs like this without being supervised?
is it normal for it not to be checked by two people?
are verbal orders acceptable?

would you change vet or does this happen at all vets and we just don’t hear about it?

Good lord that has made my blood run cold. I hope that someone can come along to advise you soon OP. Your friend must be devastated.

That’s awful. There is risk with any anaesthesia as is known but I’ve not heard of any dogs dying in surgery anecdotally. My dog had surgery 8 weeks ago and all is well. I would think that after this their procedures will be tighter than ever!

Thanks, honestly I feel I could never leave my dog or cat at the vets unsupervised now. I don’t know what I’d do if they needed an operation.

Yes. It’s common for nurses to draw up and administer drugs under veterinary direction, especially if the vet is in surgery (ie.scrubbed) Nursing is a qualified and regulated profession in its own right, it’s not like how it used to be. They don’t need ‘supervision’, ours are more skilled than half of the vets! Most drugs don’t need double checked or countersigned, except controlled drugs as in this case.

However, in 15 years of working in emergency work i can honestly say this is so rare it wouldn’t even cross my mind to worry about. Mistakes can happen anywhere, human error is unfortunately never able to
be ruled out entirely. I am sure that whichever practice that was has introduced new protocols so it can never happen again. It doesn’t bring the dog back but accidents do happen in both human and veterinary medicine.

If you couldn't leave your dog, that’s fine, but we wouldn’t be able to treat it which is probably way worse for the dog.

Thank you. I know ultimately and logically that if my dog needed surgery I’d have to leave her but I’d be a total wreck. But it’s reassuring I guess that my vets aren’t cutting corners/bad practice with the nurse giving drugs.

No they aren’t. Unfortunately veterinary nursing is often seen as a lesser profession and that’s not the case. Nurses are qualified (most holding a degree), regulated by the RCVS, registered, attend yearly CPD. They are trained to calculate and administer drugs, under veterinary direction, amongst many things. If you spend time in practice you will probably see that nurses do much more than you realise. They are also allowed to perform surgery under schedule 3.

If they are using lay people under the umbrella ‘nurses’ that’s different. Human error happens, to nurses, vets and anyone else. It’s tragic for the owners but it’s not a common occurrence, anaesthetic death is very very rare.

Similar happened to me on two separate occasions at two different vets unfortunately so not an isolated incident.
With the first I had no phone call but went to collect her after what was a spay. Apologies, she wasn’t ready to leave but I could see her. She was in a back room unconscious still on a rubber mat on the floor! She’d been operated on at 10am & this was at 6pm. I just had to leave expecting a call later to collect her but none came so I rang & rang to no avail. Went back to the surgery, all locked up with no answer to my knocking. Was frantic to say the least. Next morning they eventually answered my call at 9am & said she’d be ready to leave later. I didn’t wait till later but went straight there. After a somewhat heated conversation I brought her home, she was groggy but did recover. Needless to say I never took my dogs there again.

The second time, different vet, different much smaller dog. She went in to have a benign tumour removed. Got the phone call to collect her on time. It was a very, very hot July day but when I collected her she was cold as ice, bit groggy but awake. That evening & through the night she was very drowsy, couldn’t really rouse her. So took her back next day to be told “all fine, nothing to worry about”. Three days later she was still the same so back we went again, bit of a perfunctory examination, told she’ll be fine. Next day she had come round a little bit, enough to climb on my knee for a cuddle, when she suddenly died in my arms.
Changed vets again & this time found a wonderful one who unfortunately retired last year & surgery taken over by one of the big conglomerates so now worried again.

@Darklane thats awful, I’m so sorry.