Prologue:
To begin, I will give you some background on myself, thereby
relating my particular style to my remarks. My son and I moved
here in 1998 to the Village where I practiced in the Village Pet
Clinic. The rural public school here was superior to our prior
town of Corning, Arkansas, so my son had an excellent
opportunity to advance himself, as he did, through the Jessieville school system. My time at VPC was an awakening to
the type of quality clients that are in the vast majority here
in the Village. I was ecstatic at the chance to finally practice
quality medicine.
I left the practice after one year and started a housecall
practice in the Village. The quality of medicine and care that I
dispense was appreciated. After a short while, I began looking
for a facility to house and treat medical and surgical patients. As none of the practices in this are treated clients, in my
opinion, as well as they should, I rented a former boarding
facility behind O’Briens. The facility and practice were a
substantial success for the following reasons: I treated
clients with dignity and concern; I kept them informed; I was
available to them whenever they needed me; and my success rate
at healing was very high.
At about the same time, the VPC was “sold” to a vet in Benton,
Dr. Thoms. He employed a Dr. Jill. The practice did not grow as
she, as a new practitioner, was put into a situation with little
or no guidance. In any event, clients were forced to take
emergencies to Benton, which basically told them they were a
commodity to be exploited.
Now comes Big Bad George, or BBG as I will refer to him, the
former husband of Dr. J. An occasional client would come to me
raving mad about their pet or the case. In most matters, there
was no basis. They had gone to VPC and were “turned” by
innuendo, etc. This continued on a sporadic basis for about a
year.
The tactic didn’t work, as it nearly never does work. However,
over a number of years, some of these matters did work to my
disadvantage.
I cleaned up a lot of messy matters involving clients of the new
vet. However, I did not ever lay any blame or imply any
wrongdoing on her part. The courtesy was not returned.
In the past 9 years there have been five incidents that were
reported to the vet board. A few other complaints were so absurd
and vindictive, all emanating from transfer clients to VPC or
the Waggin’ Wheel, that they were dismissed.
I will give you all of the documents with side explanations
where appropriate so that you can make up your own minds as to
their veracity and the tenor of the vets who made these people
mad. Our profession is an honorable one. I have found my
calling and enjoy every day. I celebrate the successes, and
mourn the losses. This is a great way to live your life!!
RE: The smear tactics of the Voice. Those of you both pro and
con on the Voice articles must have given pause as to why the
Voice takes such a venal interest in my life and my career. Perhaps you should ask the new owners, the Stephens Media Corp.,
as to why this vendetta is continuing.
First complaint case, Spooky Christensen. (All of this
information is a matter of public record so you can check on the
documents yourself at the vet board office in Little Rock)
Sherry Glover, board secretary, 501-224-2836.
When you read the documents first in chronological order, then
carefully look at several places in these documents, it will
cause you some concern over the behavior of the administrative
board in this entire matter. When I first went before the board
on this issue, the first time in over twenty years that a
complaint had been filed against me, I thought this body would
be fair, impartial, and only seek to judge matters based upon,
transparent, complete, and accurate evidence. You can judge for
yourself after reading all of this whether that assumption was
correct, or substantially wrong.
All the documents here are on file with the vet board. None have
been altered. Several of the documents here were never shown to
me by the vet board.
The first several pages show the record of my saving Spooky's
life by diagnosing and removing bladder stones. Please refer to
my record if you care to compare with the record from the VPC. You will note that the dog had been seen on several occasions
for urinary problems with no x-rays. The stones were probably
there for a considerable length of time. I do not know why
x-rays were not taken at the VPC.
The VPC record is neatly typed The record was started when the VPC was still owned by Dr Poole. The blacked-out remarks were on
the original copy to the board.
If you read the record, you will note that for two years the dog
was having urinary problems. No x-rays were taken. Oxalate
crystals in the urine are suggestive of bladder stones. Palpation, or feeling the bladder is usually enough. There is no
indication of anybody at VPC recommending x-rays nor is there
any indication of the owner refusing the x-rays. T he note on
11/1/02 refers to my initial exam and the surgery on Spooky
From 11/2 to 11/05 Spooky was placed on an iv, given oral
antibiotics, fat was trimmed from the incision (my sutures at
this point). Then you will note that Spooky was sutured at VPC.
My comments on the original record indicated the two layers of
stainless steel sutures that I had placed at the surgery for the
bladder stone removal. The internal sutures were evidently not
removed, as they are left in place as insurance against any
future herniation.
11/7: You will note that what I presume were my skin stainless
steel sutures were removed and the skin incision was closed with Vycril, a monofilament synthetic suture commonly used by most
vets. I rarely use Vicryl unless the animal wears a collar after
suturing. The sutures are nylon and can also untie sometimes.
Note that on 11/11, four days later (unable to tell if dog was
at the VPC all that time or went home), the suture repair by VPC
vet came undone. At that point the reference to my abdominal
suture line of stainless steel sutures was mentioned. Of course,
this was sufficiently long after the surgery for the abdomen to
be healed. Note that there was no "hernia" of fat or abdominal
tissues or structures mentioned. Instead the word was misapplied
as a dehicscence of the skin sutures placed by VPC had come
undone. The skin was closed again as you can read with one line
of sutures in the skin. X-rays mentioned in the 11/11
remark show that my abdominal stainless steel sutures were still
in place!
Please take note of this remark as the x-rays shown to the vet
board by VPC had no stainless steel sutures in the abdomen. In
other words, where did they go? Was this the same dog? Further
references to those two large x-rays will come up in later
documents on this matter.
Please note that on 11/12, now sixteen days after the surgery,
Spooky had been urinating. I can tell you that normal urine
production in a dog this size is about 12-13 or more milliliters
per day or more. You will note that on the previous dates on the VPC record substantial amounts of urine were removed. So he
evidently was doing at least ok for two weeks before he was
taken back to VPC. Now here is the rub. VPC was at that time
owned by Dr. Thoms in Benton with some financial or professional
association with the vet at VPC in the Village. Misdiagnosing
bladder stones is a pretty cut and dried lawsuit. So if VPC
could "turn" the client against me, although I had correctly
diagnosed the condition and corrected the problem and possibly
saved the dogs life, they were looking at fewer difficulties.
To their credit, I guess, they managed to turn the matter back
to me. It never dawned upon me that anything as
unprofessional as that had been done. You will note that the dog
was "referred" to Dr. Thoms the owner and lawsuit liable vet in
Benton for the surgery. You will note that one page with no
information and no signatures accompanied a letter to the board. You will note that after the surgery no stone was kept for
evidence. So the only proof of this later surgery and stone was
a copy of a portion of a record from the ower of the VPC. Y ou
would think that the stone, or photos, or a complete surgical
report, with the vet present at the board to be questioned,
would have been required. Not so. This group of board members
did not consider the lack of evidence, i.e. the stone, or even a
photo, nothing, as necessary.
Now the comments about the x-rays -- You will note a lot of
confusion in the matter of the x-rays. The ones I gave Mrs. C
came back with, you guessed it, a "mystery x-ray" not from my
clinic. In retrospect, it probably came from Dr. Thoms' clinic
as you will note VPC said they did not have a small cassette to
take this size x-ray. You will also note the "mystery x-ray" had
a poor copy of my assistants signature. The film was also not
the kind used at my clinic. S uspecting something at this point? The board merely stated; "We can't tell where it came from."
Please note also the two large x-rays mentioned in the VPC
record. The dates on the records were "two days apart".
Suspecting some disconnect, I and my tech and Ms. Glover went to UAMS to the radiology department. One of the doctors there
looked at both films and told us they were taken "a few minutes
apart" so the dates on the x-rays did not connect. Also note
that "no stainless steel sutures were present" in this x-ray,
just nylon (probably Vicryl) were in place. We all noted that
Spooky seemed to have grown an inch or so in length from my
x-rays. You would think this might make the board members
suspect something was awry. They just brushed it off.
My summary: I saved this dog with bladder stones that had been
misdiagnosed for two years. I possibly missed a small stone.
I gave x-rays to Mrs. C. She returned mystery x-ray back to me
with only two of the originals I sent, absent the one with my
sutures in the abdomen and skin (post-op x-ray after surgery to
remove the stones). No stone was produced as evidence of the
surgery. A cursory and incomplete statement was presented from
the owner and "referring vet" stating that he did the surgery.
Please decide on your own what you think of this. The
evidence follows, after which a summation statement. Dr.
Bob
