I am starting this GoFundMe to seek out assistance with Max's ongoing health bills seeing as a secondary corrective procedure is only the start of his healing journey. Post-operation, he will have follow-up visits, additional imaging, prescription needs/refills, and physical therapy.

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On April 10th, 2025, my dog Max was hit by a car in San Jose, CA. At that point, he was immediately transferred to emergency care to be stabilized and then transferred to an orthopedic specialist, Dr. Jennifer Ree of Onward Veterinary Clinic, on April 11th for a corrective procedure to repair his fractured left femur. Prior to this car accident, he had no health injuries and/or issues whatsoever. He was a healthy 6-year-old dog.

I personally spoke to Dr. Ree pre-op and mentioned to her my understanding of the risks involved but that the risk was seemingly lower than the reward of him having the ability to walk again seeing as he is a registered ESA and a rather large breed dog who's predominantly legs (he's very tall). I asked her if she had prior experience with this and if she felt capable of completing this procedure, and she stated she has done it many times before but again there are always risks involved with any surgery. The procedure consisted of a structural plate being put into place with pins to allow the bone the support to heal. He was immediately booked into surgery and underwent his procedure.

Post-operation, she let me know he was being discharged but she found the need to also do a bone graft from a fragment of his splintered bone to better support the plate. I had no complaints about this seeing as she is the licensed professional and I wanted to give him the best opportunity at recovery, and she deemed it the highest probability of preventing plate rejection. Max initially (~2-ish weeks post-op) showed extremely promising results that I had hoped indicated he would regain the highest possible probability of a "normal" range of motion despite his leg sustaining this injury. However, very quickly it became concerning to me that something was not quite right - shortly after his 2nd-3rd week visit - but seeing as I have never experienced this injury with him (and he is my first/only dog I have ever owned), I was unsure if perhaps I was just being hyper-aware of his movements/leg post-op. I did immediately bring it to Dr. Ree - as well as the clinic which she operated out of's attention. To which they did not seem to take it seriously (I have medical documentation, texts, and emails to further elaborate on this but for the sake of the length of this, I will leave it at that for now).

Fast forward to where we are today, I essentially lost confidence in not only the facility/other team members but most importantly Dr. Ree's competency to provide adequate care and began to seek out other options. Thankfully, I found a highly recommended surgeon who actually heard out my concerns and at the very first intake visit documented some notably obvious signs of issues that would not manifest from "procedure risks, bodily rejection, and in his words, 'something I was doing.'" He instantly agreed to take over Max's care and requested we get him on the books for more accurate imaging than a simple X-Ray; we got him CT scans which ultimately confirmed what I had been wary of and what he initially noted as concerning on his intake visit.

In short, Max entered Dr. Ree's care on April 11th under the impression she would repair his singular injury of a fractured femur. Now, almost 4 months later, he is suffering from the following due to incorrect installation and case mismanagement of my pet:

- Left Femur, incorrectly placed at ~ a 15-degree angle

- Left Knee, to migrate at an unnatural angle to compensate/in the body's attempt to align with the other bone (femur)

- Left Hip, to slightly displace causing what is only able to be explained as a pinching or closing position directly affecting his nerves.

- Left Side, sciatic nerve pain causing inability to use foot from ankle down (incl. all toes)

- Lack of appetite, weight loss of currently ~10lbs

- Change of behavior resulting in sometimes snappy (never before ever being violent/aggressive).

- Note: She had me doing PROM's (a type of stretching exercise despite my concerns and he tried to snap at my face/bite me. I later found out from his new surgeon she should have stopped these exercises immediately because the amount of pain he's in from his nerves can cause any otherwise calm animal to snap).