On December 5th, 2016 I dropped my young, healthy cat Amelia off for a routine procedure at Dutch Fork Animal Hospital.  When I picked her up, my vibrant pet was gone; the cat they handed me was limp and barely responsive.  After her vet, Dr. Boyette, assured me she was perfectly fine to take home, Amelia died a few hours later, and I’m still trying to uncover why.  

I’ve given Dutch Fork Animal Hospital countless opportunities to be transparent about that day, including having my daughter (an emergency veterinary surgeon) call and talk candidly, vet to vet.  Even so, they refuse to give me the one thing I long for – besides having my cat back alive -- clarity about what exactly led to her death.

This case is currently being investigated by the SC Veterinary Board, but I also feel compelled to share it with you. Please come to your own conclusions, but at the very least, I do hope that by sharing Amelia’s story, more pets’ needless deaths can be prevented. 

Amelia’s Life… and Death

Amelia was a tough, smart cat right from the beginning. I found her, starving to death, on the street when she was less than a year old. At her initial check-up, I find out that she had even been surviving with a bullet in her leg. As you’d imagine from such a rough start, Amelia was extremely timid around pretty much everyone, except for me.

I rescued her, she trusted me, and we bonded very quickly.  The first night I took her home, she jumped in bed with me and did so every night for the next six years. She would snuggle as close as she could and purr loudly until she fell asleep. If I went out of town for a few days, she would lay on top of my chest when I came back as if to keep me from leaving again. I miss her most at night, and sometimes still think I feel her small thump as she jumps on the bed.

December 5, 2016

AMELIA'S DEATH

8:30AM - I brought Amelia to Dutch Fork Animal Hospital for a routine dental to be performed by Dr. Tiffany Boyette.  When the assistant came into the lobby to get Amelia, she asked me if I wanted to have an extra, completely voluntary blood test done that would check for any heart issues. I told her Amelia was a young cat and acted fine, so I didn't think it was necessary. She said that was fine and had me sign something saying that I refused the test, but didn't give me a copy of it. 

6:00 PM - The tech at Dutch Fork Animal Hospital, Juan, brought Amelia into the room in her carrier.  Dr. Tiffany Boyette was also in the room. Juan made a remark that Amelia gave him a hard time when he went to take out her IV and he said he had to give her something.  I looked into the carrier and knew instantly that something was wrong.

I’ve picked numerous pets up over the years after they’ve been under anesthesia, and Amelia did not look right. Her eyes were unresponsive and open way too wide and her body was limp and distorted, nothing close to the way a cat would hold themselves. It looked like she had been shoved into the carrier. I remarked that Amelia didn’t look good, but Dr. Boyette never examined her, even after my comment. Instead, she flippantly remarked that it was fine to take her home, she’d wake up soon, or I could leave Amelia there overnight, but no one would be there to monitor her.  Trusting her opinion, I chose to leave her there, but felt very uneasy about it.

6:15 PM - I left the parking lot and called my daughter who is an emergency veterinarian in another state. I told her what happened and described Amelia's condition, and she told me to go right back there, get her records, and bring Amelia to an emergency veterinary hospital.   I called Dutch Fork Animal Hospital and told them I was coming right back. When I got there I had to wait in the waiting room for about 10 minutes and then a female tech brought Amelia out to me in her cage. At the time, I thought the female tech had an ominous look on her face and looked at me very hard, with a meaningful stare, but I shrugged it off.  Amelia looked terrible but I did not yet realize how bad she really was.

Later, I would take a closer look at the discharge instructions I have from them that say, "Your pet will not be discharged from the hospital if he or she is unable to walk out."

6:35 PM - I arrived at the emergency veterinary hospital, ran in with Amelia, and told them she was unresponsive. At this point, I was becoming more concerned because on the way there, she lost control of her bladder and just laid in her urine without moving. They took her back immediately and worked on her for a while. Eventually, they called me back into the operating area and told me she hadn’t had any blood pressure for two minutes and only a very faint heartbeat.

They said she was too far gone to be brought back. I sobbed, kissed her goodbye, and gave permission for them to euthanize her. Afterward they gave me their records and on it they noted "Near death upon arrival."

I brought Amelia home and buried her at 8PM in the rain.

December 6, 2016

My daughter, who is an emergency veterinarian, called Dutch Fork Animal hospital and was able to talk to Dr. Shumpert, the director.  My daughter asked Dr. Shumpert to have Dr. Boyette call her. Dr. Boyette did call my daughter and they had a long conversation. Dr. Boyette began the conversation by trying to gloss over what had happened. Eventually she realized that she couldn’t fool my daughter and tearfully admitted that she never examined Amelia even once after the dental. She depended on the tech to do it, and was completely at fault. What we thought must have happened is that Amelia never recovered from the anesthesia. Dr. Boyette then called me with a tearful apology.

 I forgave her, and this whole nightmare would have ended here, except that I started rethinking about the night, and something wasn’t adding up. I remembered that Juan, the tech, had said "She gave me a hard time when I was removing her IV and I had to give her something." I needed to talk to Juan.  

On December 7, 2016, I called Dutch Fork Animal Hospital and left a message that I wanted to speak with Juan

December 8, 2016

Dr. Boyette called me back instead and asked me what I wanted to talk to Juan about. I told her I wanted to know if he removed the IV while her and I were standing in the room waiting for him to bring Amelia in. She said yes and then said something that was alarming to me:   Juan told her that Amelia got away from him while he was trying to take her IV out and he had to catch her.

Wait! That means she was able to move, see, and fend for herself mere minutes before I saw her.   This changed everything for me.  

I asked Dr. Boyette how she then explains Amelia's condition when she was brought into the room. Dr. Boyette said Amelia must have had a heart attack.

So, am I supposed to believe that Amelia had to be caught to get her IV out,  had a heart attack, was put in her carrier almost lifeless, and Juan doesn't alert anyone about her obvious change in condition?

This new narrative doesn’t jive with common sense.

The fact is that Juan was not at all surprised by Amelia's declining condition when he brought her to me, because he gave her something, as he stated.

I asked Dr. Boyette to go talk to him again and call me back. 

December 12

Dr. Boyette called me and said that they looked at security tapes and Dutch Fork Animal Hospital had video of Juan chasing Amelia around. He caught her and took her to another confined room – that doesn’t have security video -- to remove her IV. That means there's no evidence of what happened in that room. 

Her explanation is that she became too scared and that was what killed her. I asked her, if that was the case (Juan chasing her around one minute and the next putting a limp, half lifeless body in the carrier), then why didn't he alert someone?

Dr. Boyette couldn’t answer.

The only reasonable conclusion I’ve been able to come to is that Dutch Fork animal Hospital is covering up what happened when Amelia was in that room with Juan. 

Up to this point, Dutch Fork Animal Hospital has given me three different reasons for Amelia's death:

1. 12/6/2016 - She never woke up from the operation and just died.  I should have had the blood work done that I mentioned above to prevent that.

2. 12/8/2016 - She had a heart attack right before Juan put her into the carrier.

3. 12/12/2016 - She got too afraid right before Juan put her into the carrier and couldn't recover.

There is a lot I still don’t know, but here are the facts:

1) Dr. Boyette did not examine her patient even once and sent her unstable patient out the door twice. Once when I first went to pick her up, and again when I went back to take her to the emergency room.  Remember the discharge instructions I meantioned earlier? They say, "Your pet will not be discharged from the hospital if he or she is unable to walk out." This is negligence.

2) They did not keep appropriate medical records. They list surgery start times at 1:04 and end times at 1:11 however extractions apparently occurred from 12:23 to 1:23. There was no monitoring of BP, temp or sPO2 during the whole procedure. The record states that “recovery was normal.”

3) There are videos taken by security cameras in Dutch Fork Animal Hospital’s back room that show Amelia, and she appears fine. However, Amelia was brought into a room that was not being recorded and whatever happened in that room with the tech/assistant is being covered up. They will not let me talk to him.

If someone from DFAH is reading this and knows what really happened in that room, please contact me anonymously by using the Contact page on this site.

I miss my cat and just want the truth.

Thank you for reading.