LINCOLN, R.I. — A routine pet surgery led to tragedy for one family.
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A Rhode Island family is suing a veterinarian who said they left a surgical tool inside their dog, causing its death, WJAR reported.
For the Brenton Family “Princess Freckles” wasn’t just a dog.
“It was like having a third daughter,” Kristen Breton said. “Lots of kisses, hugs, and for wrestling. It’s like she just knew she was home.”
That storybook beginning ended in heartbreak last year, after what should have been a routine procedure.
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“She needed to be spayed because she was between her heat cycles, and my current vet was closed because they were under construction so I found another vet that could do her procedure,” Breton said.
In August 2022, Breton brought Princess Freckles to the Rhode Island Animal Medical Center.
“Everything seemed normal, there was no sign at the time that anything was clinically wrong,” she told WJAR.
But that changed over time when Princess Freckless started having stomach issues.
They quickly turned severe.
“She started to vomit constantly. and it was getting worse,” Breton said.
She rushed Princess Freckles to Ocean State Veterinary Specialists that’s when she received the shocking question —“Is it possible she could have swallowed scissors?”
An x-ray confirmed the unthinkable — surgical scissors and gauze left inside Princess Freckles during her spay two years earlier.
The 3-year-old St. Benard was in kidney failure and surgery wasn’t an option.
“I just wasn’t ready. She was 3, and it was also kind of such a gross ending to her life that I was feeling incomplete,” Breton said.
She is now suing the pet hospital and the vet, Dr. Deborah Hirschmann, who performed the surgery.
Dr. Hirshmann was placed on two-year probation and ordered to undergo professional training by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
Animal Medical Center has not commented on the case.
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