Following recent heavy flooding to some areas around our hospital, a husband and wife presented for assessment after they had been winched from the roof of their house by chopper.
They were accompanied by their dog Jessie who was rescued with them (after she alerted the sleeping couple to the rising water level).
What do we do when a hero dog presents to the emergency department?
Well …at the risk of breaking patient confidentiality…let me transcribe her actual ED patient notes.
Presenting complaint: Environmental exposure of canine.
History of presenting complaint: Was eating chunks of meat and chasing sheep when noticed it had been raining heavily for over 12 hours.
Given that owners lived on a property nearby the river, she became concerned about flooding.
She immediately told her owners to make for high ground, but it was too late…the house was surrounded by flood waters.
So she gave two quick barks – indicating “get to the roof”. Her owners obeyed. At this time she was hungry but ignored this urge for the greater good.
6 hours later she decided that her owners no longer had any good conversation and hence called the chopper to come and rescue them despite having moderate fear of all things mechanical.
Past medical history:
Overeating Disorder.
Fetish for sheep chasing
Sore tooth
Tapeworm
Itchy backside.
Meds: once swallowed owners diazepam and slept for 14 days.
Allergies: Cats. Helicopters.
Social: Occ. ETOH when owners leave a beer lying around.
On examination: 2.7 foot high. Mobilising on all 4 limbs.
Puppy dog eyes.
Brownish discoloration of fur.
All 8 nipples intact.
No external signs of injury.
Chest-a bit furry.
Abdo- a little less furry.
Issues: medically clear for discharge, but patient appears to be a dog.
Jessie received expert attention, fluids, food and PRN patting from both our medical staff and concerned patients. We are happy to report both her, and her owners will make a full recovery.
[This is not the first animal we have cared for in our department (see here). ]
Ah, what a good dog!
Thanks for that Ian. I had seen that someone had provided rope to tie the poor dog up and I envisigned the poor thing out in the Ambulance Bay lonely and being ignored.So it was good to see he / she was well looked after…yet another example of Nurses caring for the Whole Family…is that holistic ??
Thats awesome!!!!! Just the other day we had a lady present explainging that she runs a birdlife park and one of her birds had snapped its beak. She was requesting some Histoacryl to repair it as the beak was so badly injured that the bird could not feed itself. I had to approach managment to ensure that it was ok to “dispence” this to her. Not sure of the birds anatomy, but I hope she didn’t comprimise his airway!!! Thankfully she did not return stuck to the bird!!!!
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