The Story of Lady Deanna

“Lady Deanna” or “Dee Dee” is a 1 1/2 year old female spayed Irish Wolfhound who came to the Emergency and Critical Care Department at VESCONE after being hit by a car. She had been startled by a loud noise, broken away from her owner and run into a dangerous intersection. When she arrived at VESCONE, a quick evaluation of condition was performed by Dr. Ellis and the triage nurse. It was immediately clear that she had broken her left hind leg, however she was also pale, in shock, and was having difficulty breathing.

Her breathing difficulty was due to air leaking out of her lungs, into her chest cavity such that her lungs were not able to expand and fill normally with air. This is called a pneumothorax. Initially, the most important thing was to help her breathing by giving her oxygen and removing the air that had leaked. Then she immediately received intravenous fluids, pain medication, and had blood work and x-rays taken of her chest, abdomen, pelvis and left hind leg. Her x-rays showed that her lungs were bruised and were continuing to leak a dangerously large amount of air. She also had broken her left femur (thigh bone).

The most immediate threat to Dee Dee’s life was the pneumothorax.
Stabilizing this condition required a team effort of nurses carefully monitoring her under anesthesia while Dr. Ellis placing a chest tube with the assistance of Dr. John Benson, a boarded surgeon. The chest tube was attached to continuous suction so that the air leaking from her lungs would not be able to build up to dangerous levels. Deanna was assigned one of the highest levels of nursing care due to her chest tube and the care she needed. Deanna could not walk or breathe well at first. Her critical care team made sure she had enough fluids, pain control and oxygen to make her more comfortable and to be able to undergo surgery once she could breathe better.

It was not safe to take Dee Dee to surgery to repair her broken leg until her lungs had healed and stopped leaking. It took five days for her to lungs to heal enough so that she could tolerate the prolonged anesthesia required to repair her broken leg. The excellent surgical team assigned to see Deanna through her surgery helped her through the second arm of her recovery. In total, Dee Dee stayed in the hospital on intravenous fluids, continuous pain medication, antibiotics and oxygen, with her chest tube in place for over 1 week.

Finally, after a long fight and with much bravery, Lady Deanna’s heart rate, respiratory rate and effort, blood pressure, electrolytes and the oxygen content of her blood all normalized. With some physical therapy in the hospital, Lady Dee was starting to walk slowly. She was able to have her chest tube removed and go home two days after her broken leg was repaired. Her owners did physical therapy at home to help with her healing. She was very sweet and friendly throughout her stay. Lady Dee and her family met the challenges to overcome such a serious accident that almost took her life, with love, appreciation and an even an occasional lick on the face.

A month after her injury, she returned to VESCONE for x-rays of her broken leg. Her owners were happy to report that she was feeling very well at home and was using her left hind more and more as time went on.

Congratulations Lady Dee, her family and the team at VESCONE for saving her life and a full recovery!