Bailey’s story begins on the morning
of Christmas Eve 2012. Bailey had tried
to catch and kill a UPS truck menacing the neighborhood…but unfortunately, the
truck had won the battle. When Bailey arrived
at First Regional, he was in critical condition with severe injuries – he was suffering
from shock, his left hind leg broken in multiple places, and he had large open
wounds on his hind legs, tail, and front paws.
The emergency team at FIRST Regional, led by Dr. Heather Hendricks, provided
him with life-saving oxygen, intravenous fluids, antibiotics, and pain
medication. X-rays revealed further
injuries: tearing of his abdominal muscles; several
pelvic fractures; and a broken femur at its articulation with the right hip.
For the next few days, Bailey
remained in critical care. His shock was stabilized, the extensive wounds were treated
several times daily, and he remained on high doses of pain medications until he
was transferred to me for further evaluation and treatment. Unfortunately, his left hind leg was so
severely damaged that amputation was the only option. I tried to stabilize the right hind leg, there
was not enough bone to hold the surgical implants, and we had to remove the top
of the femur bone that had shattered. The
owners were warned Bailey might have difficulty learning to walk again, due to
the fact he was now missing a limb, a portion of his right hip joint, and had
pelvic fractures that needed time to heal.
However, despite the severity of
injuries and aggressive surgery needed, Bailey’s remarkable tenacity and spirit
began to shine through, and he started walking with assistance just a couple of
days after surgery! Unfortunately,
another complication appeared right before he was going to be sent home. During the accident, areas of his skin had
lost their blood supply, and several regions on Bailey’s back and trunk
appeared to be dying. 5 days after the
first surgery, I tried placing a drain and compression bandage, in hopes that
the remaining skin would heal and we could avoid additional surgery.
Unfortunately, a few days later the
skin in those areas died and infection set in.
On January 4, 2013, a second surgery was performed, and all of the dead
skin was removed and the remaining skin sutured closed. Bailey recovered quickly and was sent home
with antibiotics. Sadly, as you can see
in the pictures, his recheck examination on January 7threvealed
additional areas of skin had died and infection progressed despite the
antibiotics. At that point, it was
obvious traditional therapies would not work - over a third of the skin on his
back and trunk had died and the whole area was infected. We were worried Bailey might not survive
after all.
Vacuum-assisted wound closure (VAC
therapy) was recommended by our Critical Care Specialist, Dr. Alisa Reniker. This treatment is new in veterinary medicine,
but has proven effective in the treatment of many large, infected, and complicated
human wounds, such as those suffered by the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It greatly accelerates wound healing by
applying constant negative pressure to the wound to improve blood supply,
remove excessive fluid, and rid the wound of infection.
Fortunately for Bailey, his owners
were very dedicated to his recovery. A third surgery, to remove the dead skin and
place the initial VAC bandage, was performed on January 9th. Bailey had VAC bandage changes on the 10th,
15th, 18th, and 21st. After 15 days of VAC therapy, the wound was
less than a quarter of the original size, the infection had cleared, and there
was a healthy tissue bed. Today, the wound
is almost completely healed due to his fighting spirit, his owners’ love and
dedication, and a new technology that will hopefully help many more pets in the
future.
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