Can I sue ASPCA for neutering malpractice?

[yago]

Hi, My yorkie went through the neutering surgery at ASPCA mobile from 7:00 am to 6:30 and was transferred to NYC Animal hospital for a second surgery. Though the paper I sign said bleeding and even death may occur during surgery I think the vet at ASPCA mobile is plain incompetent and shouldn't be playing doctor with others' dogs. Is there information around there where I can find legal advice about it?

[langford59]

there is no reason to look for "legal advice"

if you wanted top quality service, should have opted for a REAL vet

if you wanted to save money and get a cheap surgery...that's exactly what you got

plus any kind of surgery carries risks ...so you are SOL

[abraham90]

Of course you can't sue. YOU signed the consent form and accepted the risks involved in surgery.

[albanwr26]

You signed the waiver, knew the risks and allowed them to do the surgery. Good luck with that law suit!

[coinleain]

Unfortunately that paper you signed protects them from things like this

[maddox]

Why would you sue a charity? Seriously, that's not cool.

[gobrwy]

Unfortunately that paper you signed protects them from things like this

[dana]

That is what happens when one goes the cheap route for a dogs surgery.

There is nothing routine about surgery, all surgery carries risk. Removing body parts
carries risk.

Obviously you were made aware of that when you signed the release.

The best thing to do in the future is to read the current medical research that clearly states that there is no real medical benefit to ever neutering male dogs and a lot of long term health problems.

So even if your dog makes it through this event, he could very well have other more serious health problems in the future.

Here is a great link to learn more-
http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongTermHealthEffectsOfSpayNeuterInDogs.pdf

Here is a quote from the medical research-
"On balance, it appears that no compelling case can be made for neutering most male dogs, especially
immature male dogs, in order to prevent future health problems. The number of health problems associated
with neutering may exceed the associated health benefits in most cases."

On the negative side, neutering male dogs
• if done before 1 year of age, significantly increases the risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer); this is a
common cancer in medium/large and larger breeds with a poor prognosis.

• increases the risk of cardiac hemangiosarcoma by a factor of 1.6
• triples the risk of hypothyroidism
• increases the risk of progressive geriatric cognitive impairment
• triples the risk of obesity, a common health problem in dogs with many associated health problems
• quadruples the small risk (<0.6%) of prostate cancer
• doubles the small risk (<1%) of urinary tract cancers
• increases the risk of orthopedic disorders
• increases the risk of adverse reactions to vaccinations

ADD: Can you get your story straight, is the dog a male or a female.
When you started with the question it was a male.
Now with your additional details its a female.
Surely your dog did not have a sex change surgery, so what is it?

[rickie]

Nop.

First off you should have research a bit more and read what you were reading.

What I hate about shelters is exactly this. They are so into spay and neutering they will do it to any pet at any age no matter what size they are. Toy breeds are at higher risk for issues. A GOOD vet will recommend doing this to any dog that is over 5 lbs and over 7 months old.

My pom is 5.5 pounds and almost 8 months old she will be getting spayed next month but I refused to do it until she was over the 5 lbs and was older. Also a lot of vaccines like the lyme vaccine can be deadly to these little guys. It does not prevent anything at all. Useless vaccine made to make money. I actually refused that vaccine for my little one.

[wilbart]

What I don't understand is why he was transferred to the NYC Animal Hospital - had things gone wrong at that point? However, fact is you did sign the waiver much as if you can prove incompetence, you should still be able to sue. Bit IF however and I suggest you should maybe have taken him to another vet for his opinion about what happened. Vets are not gods, and they do make mistakes, but also much as castration is normally a straight forward procedure, there are always some that don't exactly go to plan. It happens. In the UK, we can take complaints to the governing body (BVA or RCVS) but although we have sued successfully in the past over a delayed C.Section and the loss of 5 of 9 puppies as a direct result, we ended up settling out of Court. How do you quantify a loss like that - a mating between Champions, that couldn't be repeated because the stud had gone back to the States, and mum was so damaged (proved by a later spay) she'd never had carried another litter.

Did you lose your dog? I hope not - but all I suggest you can really do is not go back to this organisation again.