Claire Hashimoto: Valley Animal Hospital saved the life of her dog
Reacquainting myself with my hometown after 30 years in Santa Monica, I keep finding treasures. Valley Animal Hospital is certainly one.
I was walking with our family dog, Rocket, when a large dog attacked us. Rocket was severely mauled, suffering profuse bleeding and several deep bites down to his spine. I rushed him to Valley Animal Hospital, and the heroes there saved his life.
Dr. Christine McFadden examined Rocket, and Dr. Jon Klingborg quickly executed the complex surgery to close multiple life-threatening wounds. Amazingly, when I visited Rocket the next morning, he was standing, wagging his tail. Rocket wasn’t ready to come home yet, but Dr. Klingborg allowed our family generous visitation time during his intensive-care hospitalization. Dr. Klingborg demonstrated meticulous expertise throughout Rocket’s postoperative period.
Rocket has had his follow-up examination and has healed splendidly. I’ve spent 30 years in medicine after training at Dartmouth and Stanford, and I’ve never seen anyone, human or canine, survive such massive injuries with no complications or impairment.
The superb care of Dr. McFadden and exceptional surgical and medical expertise of Dr. Klingborg spared our family from suffering a heart-breaking loss. Merced is fortunate to have such amazing veterinarians.
Claire Hashimoto, Santa Monica
This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Claire Hashimoto: Valley Animal Hospital saved the life of her dog."