Freak accidents

Re: Freak accidents

Mark Holmes — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:15:39 GMT

The old Lady I was refering to was in the lift and the dog stepped out as the door closed, old lady unable to operate emergency stop button and small dog finally realeased from the top of the lift door when collar snapped where by he fell to the ground.

He was ok but his neck was sore for a few days.

Re: Freak accidents

Laurence Webb — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:08:41 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]Here are a few words that shouldn't go together. Old lady, small dog, extendable lead and lift. Can you guess the accident?[/quote]

That reminds me of a dreadful accident at my school. We had a latin master who was as old as the language itself. He was the proud owner of a Daf variomatic 33, which he parked outside the classroom one very hot day. Rather than leaving his dog in the car, he tied it by the lead to the rear bumper.

He was a forgetful man.

[/quote]

I had some clients that did this with their own dog. It survived with only badly scuffed pads and a few abrasions. The owners claimed to have driven 2 miles before noticing although I suspect that may be a bit of exaggeration.

Re: Freak accidents

Bob Russell — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:11:49 GMT

I returned a dog to its elderly owner (some years ago) after we had extracted a number of teeth. I was accompanied by one of the nurses. We entered the sheltered housing and had to use the lift.

When the lift door opened the dog clearly knew she was home and ran in just as the doors closed!

Dog inside lift, vet outside holding end of lead, nurse and vet looking at each other in a state of shock.

The lead did slide up the lift door, it was exactly as it looks in comedy sketches but the panic is real. We both started to laugh hysterically - what else can you do?

If you are in this situation in the UK things will probably be fine as lift manufacturers have obviously planned for this. The lead disappeared at the top of the door. We pressed the button and the lift came back down minus dog (a cocker spaniel). We went up half expecting to see an badly injured dog but she was sitting outside mum's door wagging her tail.

How would VDS have tackled this one I wonder?

Re: Freak accidents

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:13:10 GMT

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]Here are a few words that shouldn't go together. Old lady, small dog, extendable lead and lift. Can you guess the accident?[/quote]

He was a forgetful man.

Re: Freak accidents

Colin Cameron — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:46:25 GMT

Had a locum once who reversed, in recently purchased car, into surgery car park at reasonably brisk rate of knots towards stone built 8ft high wall. Brakes applied, nothing happened except, you've guessed it,..........crunchy crunchy sweary sweary.................. new car please! The wall remained intact!

Re: Freak accidents

Vikki Halliday LLB — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:45:30 GMT

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]Here are a few words that shouldn't go together. Old lady, small dog, extendable lead and lift. Can you guess the accident?[/quote]

Re: Freak accidents

Mark Holmes — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:21:57 GMT

Here are a few words that shouldn't go together. Old lady, small dog, extendable lead and lift. Can you guess the accident?

Re: Freak accidents

Bethan Cosgrove — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 03:49:27 GMT

I'm sure all large animal vets can happily recount a tale of a disastrous uterine prolapse but Michael's anecdote brings back an old but still remarkably fresh memory from my days in large animal practice as a fairly recent grad.

Not that long ago really, but the duty vet still took the phonecalls at home overnight. Needless to say my heart sank as the dreaded call came in at about 2am from farmer just home from the pub and somewhat worse for wear! I arrived to find the cow in lateral recumbency, bloated, puffing away with its uterus laid out behind AND a good 2 or 3 miles from any farm buildings. Oh joy! Concerned that its hypocalcaemia may kill it before I could get its uterus back in (what a mistake that was!), it merrily perked up after its iv calcium. I proceeded to put the uterus back with a p*!#ed up farmer hanging on to ropes holding its back legs out. You can guess what happened next...he let go, the cow got up, my 'almost but not quite' replaced uterus tumbled out again and the cow shot off at full pelt around the pitch black field. After numerous suggestions of how we might possibly restrain the cow, the stumbling farmer said all were inconceivable! Followed by what seemed like a lifetime of cat and mouse chase with a syringe of rompun in hand and the sun beginning to rise, I eventually called my boss for another pair of hands. He graciously came, barked orders at the drunk farmer and we got the job done. Happy outcome in the end! I knew there was a reason I left large animal practice..oh no, that was the broken leg but that's another tale!

Re: Freak accidents

Vikki Halliday LLB — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:55:43 GMT

[quote user="i am ed"][quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]I had some fun and games yesterday[/quote]

The lengths you'll go to avoid doing a prolapse... I don't know.

[/quote]

A similar tale was recounted to me once when I was seeing practice, except this cow was haemorrhaging badly they managed to crate her, got her down and as a tourniquet wrapped vetwrap tightly round the still everted uterus.

The cow then got up, ( I forget why they couldn't stop her, ) raced off down the hill, and the vet watched as the uterus, well, sort of "fell off".

She lived to make it to slaughter, in the days before OTM...........

Re: Freak accidents

salome2001 — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:11:24 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

However, I had an ancient autoclave explode once back in the day, I heard the bang and rushed into the room to find the nurse prostrate with instruments embedded in the ceiling and wall like shrapnel after an IED had gone off. ..Needless to say, autoclave maintenance is one thing I don't skimp on these days!!!

[/quote]

This brings to mind a "there but for the grace of God" incident many years back with our (very useful and reliable) autoclave. We had a locum nurse in who, after sterilising the day's instruments, refilled the autoclave and left for the day. The next day our student nurse went to do another load, and- as was his habit- checked the water level before turning on the cycle. And noticed that the water was white..... and smelt of surgical spirit....

Those 5 litre containers under the sink are easy to mix up.

It still fills me with dread to think of what might have happened....

Re: Freak accidents

Edward Jones — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:42:50 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]I had some fun and games yesterday[/quote]

The lengths you'll go to avoid doing a prolapse... I don't know.

Re: Freak accidents

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:25:16 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

The pet vets don't know they are born!

[/quote]

We do which is why we're pet vets! I believe the definition of a large animal anaesthetic is: one that is induced in one field, the surgery takes place in a second and recovery in a third.

Re: Freak accidents

Wren — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:24:56 GMT

Not really a 'freak' accident but I had to go and clear up the aftermath of a train driving through a herd of fat bulls which had somehow got onto the line. The kind (?) driver had let them off the line and into a 40 acre field where there were at least 3 with fractured legs with no way of catching or containing them (poorly fenced corn field). They were also quite wound up and rather angry. I went with a neighbouring farmer in his beat up pick-up (wasn't risking my truck!) and our humane killer and he drove me in as close as he could get whereupon I waited until their heads came up and shot them. Amazingly it worked, all three dropped instantly and only one needed a further shot to finish the job off.

I bet I couldn't do it again though, and the fencing onto the railway line has miraculously been replaced since.

Re: Freak accidents

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:18:09 GMT

I had some fun and games yesterday. Called out to a Limousan heifer with a prolapsed uterus. The problem was she was loose in a 5 acre field, 2 miles from the closest I could get my van. I selected everything I thought I would need from my car and loaded it, myself and some warm water into the quad trailer A long and bumpy quad rid ensued until we reached the patient. She was down in the field, but when we arrived she got up.

We were trying to walk her to a small handling pen by the gate, but she was having none of it. As time was going on she was charging at us and the prolapse which started well abover her hocks was nearly to the floor. After the ~6th attempt to get her in she disapreard over the crest of a hill and managed to knock the farmers wife to the ground (out of sight of me and the farmer). She split her head open abover her eye and had a lot of blood, also a wound to the back of her head and a twisted ankle. I stuck her gaping wound back together with a plaster I had in my wallet.

She then went for the farmer, who beat her off with a sheep crook. At this point we called it a day and a local gamekeeper was going to go and shoot her with a deer rifle.

All in this took somewhere around 90 minutes with a 20 min drive to and then back from the patient. She was supposed to be a quiet cow!

The farmers wife needed a number of stiches and is taking it easy today on ibuprofen and what sounds like Tramadol. The cow is dead.

The pet vets don't know they are born!

Re: Freak accidents

Catherine Williams — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:03:33 GMT

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]Oh and he had a premanent drool having had a stroke some years previously and his cocker spaniel used to clean up after him as he went.[/quote]

Yeuch, I read that one while eating lunch! ....and I thought I was immune to these things

Re: Freak accidents

Mark Holmes — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:19:42 GMT

Back in a previous job we had a couple of married clients who were both doctors, they should have been off the road years ago but used to sign each others fitness to drive forms, anyway she wasn't too bad, he shouldn't have been in charge of a wheel chair never mind a car. Used to pull into the car park and stop when he hit something. Oh and he had a premanent drool having had a stroke some years previously and his cocker spaniel used to clean up after him as he went.

Re: Freak accidents

Jacquin Mitchell — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:10:43 GMT

No accidents here but we got held up at gun point once. Very scary. Police told us it was 'probably' a replica gun but the nurse involved and I had nightmares for months afterwards.

Jacq

Re: Freak accidents

katja wagner — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:50:26 GMT

Years ago while i had a dog for x rays on the table the wire started burning and i mean proper flames munching their way up to the machine. I literally had to throw the dog a big english setter over my shoudlers and run out with him. very scary!

katja

Re: Freak accidents

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:00:24 GMT

No but had one drive through the car park fence, across the neighbour's garden and into the wall of the library next door to that. Something about jammed accelerator I believe (nothing of course to do with driver has automatic, puts foot on accelerator instead of brake and panics). And a car demolished our front wall and ended up on its roof in our front driveway after coming round the corner too fast. However, I had an ancient autoclave explode once back in the day, I heard the bang and rushed into the room to find the nurse prostrate with instruments embedded in the ceiling and wall like shrapnel after an IED had gone off. She was fortunately shaken not stirred as she'd had the presence of mind to throw herself to the ground a split second before it went off. Imagine the entry in the accident book for that one if she'd been injured (not that we had one as they'd only just stopped sending small boys up chimneys back then). Needless to say, autoclave maintenance is one thing I don't skimp on these days!!!