Tuesday, February 5, 2008

"Negligence" in Nevada

Nevada vet Lisa Hayden, DVM, had the dubious distinction of having a complaint filed on her by a member of the Veterinary Board in 2005. The following were among the "stipulated facts and conclusions of law" in the Vet Board's findings:

"Dr. Hayden failed to perform a spay on a dog within the standard of practice of veterinary medicine by ligating both ureters resulting in kidney failure. That conduct is a violation of NRS 638.140 (6), negligence . . . There is no physical examination information prior to the administration of anesthesia or vaccinations."

OK, so I had to look up some of these terms in case you were wondering: the ureter is the tube that takes the urine from the kidney to the bladder. To ligate means to tie. So, if both your ureters are tied off . . .

The findings say that this caused the dog to have kidney failure. Like many Board findings, it does not say whether the dog died, but what do you think? If you search the net for "ligate both ureters" the first things you will see are terminal surgeries on rats. If you make it to page 2 of the Google results, you will find the book, "Practical Gynecology: A Text-Book for Students and Physicians" which tells us: "The most serious injury of the ureter consists in the application of a ligature upon it or upon the tissue about it so that it is laterally compressed. Ligation of both ureters is, without question, fatal . . . "

Then I performed another Google search which yielded some interesting information:

One Lisa Hayden, DVM, is on the Board of Directors for a Nevada Non-Profit called "The Silver Springs Spay-Neuter Project." The stated mission of this non-profit is:

"Building the shelter of tomorrow with aggressive spay-neuter today."

Assuming this is the same Lisa Hayden, DVM, I would say she gives a whole different meaning to the term "aggressive spay."

Hayden was placed on probation for a year, fined $500, and ordered to work 16 hours a month with a "collaborative" veterinarian.