For more info on Sunday's U of M's College of Veterinary Medicine Open House
It seems David Jenkins of Pensacola, Florida would do anything for his little Yorkie. He drove 24 hours, stopping only once, to get furry little Gizmo the dog in for surgery at the U of M's Veterinary Medical Center.
"There was very limited options for dogs with Gizmo's heart condition so, I'm just glad I found Dr. Olson," Jenkins said, just before he explained that he learned of the doctor through a Google search.
Janet Olson, DVM, performed a cutting-edge surgery on Gizmo Tuesday morning. "This is the first time that this procedure has been done on a dog of this size," Olson explained. Gizmo is barely 3 pounds.
Doctors inserted a tiny catheter through Gizmo's leg to get a plug into her heart. When she was born, a valve in her heart didn't close; a problematic issue that would cause the left side of her heart to take on too much blood. "Without having had the ability to occlude this, there was a high probability that within one year's time she would have gone into heart failure and died," Olson said.
The surgery took 2 ½ hours. Because doctors used the catheter, Gizmo's recovery was almost immediate; had they been required to open her chest a full recovery could have taken weeks.
By Wednesday afternoon, Jenkins was back in his car, on his way back to the Florida panhandle. His girlfriend is 8 months pregnant and was quite eager to be reunited with Gizmo. "It was all on a wing and a prayer," he said about his journey north. "It worked out I guess. I should probably buy a lottery ticket at this point, I got pretty lucky," he said about his new relationship with the U of M's Veterinary Medical Center.
(Copyright 2009 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
