Meatball's Heroes - Financial Support

Russell Hermans is organizing this fundraiser.

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Dear Friends and Animal Lovers,

This is the story of my soul-dog, Mia Meatball, her tragic premature death at the hands of an incompetent and dishonest veterinarian who tried to cover it up, and the veterinary staff who took a stand to bring justice and accountability…

OUR CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:

This campaign has been created to raise funds for the veterinary staff that stood with integrity and in solidarity with Mia Meatball and WALKED OUT ON THEIR JOBS just days before Christmas after witnessing the veterinarian’s egregious and negligent actions that caused Mia’s death. They are the only reason I now know the truth. They chose selflessness and honesty and I would like to repay the gesture and help them through this transition period while they seek new employment positions.

THE BEGINNING:

I found Mia Meatball at an animal shelter in North Carolina in January of 2013. I had no intention of adopting a dog that day. I was dragged there by my girlfriend at the time. While she was playing with kittens, I wandered into the dog kennel area. I walked around for a few minutes until I came to the very last kennel in the room and saw sweet Mia laying there. She immediately looked up at me with her big beautiful eyes. She timidly approached the glass door, sat down, tilted her little head downward and pressed it against the glass. I said to myself, “Shit… You’re coming home with me aren’t you?”...

Mia had been found stuffed into a trash bag and dumped at the shelter door a few days prior. They named her Daffney, but it didn’t quite fit. I brought her home and our first dinner together was spaghetti and meatballs. She also tended to curl up into a little ball when sleeping. This led me to name her Mia Belissima Polpetta, “My Beautiful Meatball” in Italian, or Mia Meatball…

For the next 3 years Mia grew into a sweet, timid, quiet, playful pup. She was a very easy dog to train and raise. All she wanted was love. And snacks. And butt-scratches.

I am a little rough around the edges, and not the easiest person to get along with, but Mia made us friends wherever we went. She was the yin to my yang. She was my balance. Mia had exactly 1 speed, nice and easy. She was never in a rush. Initially, I found it frustrating. There are things to do, places to go, and people to see. But Mia’s easy going nature forced me to stop, smell the roses, and take life a little slower. It’s the greatest lesson she taught me in life. I’ll never forget it.

THE MIDDLE:

A few years before van-life became a phenomenon, some close friends left their careers and became full-time RVers. After joining them on a vacation trip up Route 1 from San Francisco to Seattle, I decided to follow suit. I sold everything I owned, bought an RV, and we hit the road indefinitely. Mia and I spent almost 4 years traveling all over the country - from North Carolina to Maine, Virginia, Montana, Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and everywhere in between. We documented a great deal of our adventures on Instagram Russell Sprout & Mia Meatball . During this time, Mia’s personality grew exponentially. And she continued to teach me how to be a better human being.

We eventually fell in love with California and decided to settle down for a while. For the last several years, we explored all of the incredible beauty that California has to offer. I was fortunate to be able to take Mia to work with me every single day. She became everyone’s favorite coworker. She developed an impeccable internal clock and knew exactly when lunchtime was each day. If she wasn’t begging for snacks, she was usually sunbathing or distracting coworkers by demanding frequent butt-scratches. She was employee of the month, every month.

THE END:

We moved to Grass Valley CA in 2022. In late November of 2023, I discovered a mass in Mia’s front left elbow. We didn’t have a regular veterinarian in the area and it was an extremely busy time of year for most clinics. I found For The Love of Pets Veterinary Hospital (FTLOP) on Google - at the time the business had 4.5 stars and appeared to be an acceptable choice. I’ve come to learn that most of those ratings were earned by the previous owners who retired and sold the business to Dr. Abbie Barker about 2 years ago. We scheduled an examination of the mass in mid-December. This is where everything starts to get crazy…

Everything written below is taken directly from a complaint filed against Dr. Barker BY HER OWN EMPLOYEES with the California State Veterinary Medical Board, and from my own direct interactions with her. This information can also be found on our Facebook page:

Justice For Mia Meatball

Dr. Barker diagnosed Mia's front left elbow with osteosarcoma (bone cancer). HOWEVER, she withheld other critical information regarding Mia's diagnosis and overall health that she used to coerce us into an amputation surgery by leading us to believe it was the only option besides euthanasia. Dr. Barker failed to disclose that she detected the presence of a Mast Cell Tumor near the surgical site that presented an extreme risk. She also failed to disclose additional masses detected in other limbs that would have disqualified Mia as a candidate for amputation surgery. Instead, I was told that Mia's other limbs were arthritic but healthy and of no concern. All 3rd party veterinarians who have now reviewed the case have stated that it was unethical and never should have been performed based on this concealed information and Mia's age. It has become clear after reading the statements of the state complaint that she knew alternative treatments would not be profitable for HER, so she coerced us into the $6,000 surgery. Dr. Barker has been overheard by staff members saying that she "only wants cash cow clients", clearly demonstrating that her decision making processes are completely financially motivated, not ethically motivated.
Dr. Barker withheld the fact that a surgery of this caliber was beyond her professional abilities and that her facility lacked the necessary resources to manage any complications.
Prior to surgery, Dr. Barker's staff repeatedly expressed their concerns over the ethics of the surgery and whether Dr. Barker should be attempting it at all. She ignored these concerns.
On the day of surgery, Dr. Barker stated to her staff repeatedly that she shouldn't be doing the surgery as she recognized it in the moment to be beyond her abilities. She chose to attempt the surgery anyway.
Dr. Barker started the surgery, cut Mia open, then panicked, left Mia hemorrhaging on the operating table for 45+ minutes while she then called in an outside surgeon to come to her facility to complete the procedure. Mia lost a lot of blood during this time. None of this information was disclosed to me. Instead, I was told "the surgery went very well and there were no complications or concerns."
After the 2nd surgeon completed the procedure, Mia failed to return to consciousness and her heart rate remained elevated to 220+ BPM with falling blood pressure for over 3 hours. I was never contacted during this time. I had to just show up to the facility out of gut feeling that something was wrong to learn this.
Dr. Barker told her staff that she recognized Mia's post-operative condition as critical and that she needed to be immediately transferred to another facility to save her life. None of this was communicated to me until after I had been at the facility for close to an hour, costing us precious time. She also failed to disclose to me that she told her staff that Mia would need a life saving blood transfusion due to blood loss after she abandoned the surgery.
I asked Dr. Barker repeatedly why this was happening. She failed to disclose any of these details and just said "I don't know."
I was then forced to put my dying dog on a stretcher into the back of my truck and drive her over an hour through rush hour traffic to attempt to save her life. By the time we reached the other hospital she was in very critical condition. Life saving procedures commenced including multiple drug injections, blood transfusions, and eventually CPR. Through the barrage of treatments, Mia fought as hard as she could for 6 more hours. But eventually, her heart couldn’t take anymore. At 10:10pm she began crashing. CPR commenced and they were able to revive her and keep her alive for another 90 minutes. But in reality, she was past the point of no return. At 11:38pm she began crashing for the 2nd time. Unfortunately, the 2nd round of CPR was unsuccessful. She passed just before midnight.
The medical staff brought Mia into a waiting room with me. I held her lifeless body in my arms for over an hour, sobbing uncontrollably, asking myself how this could have happened, until her body turned cold. I paid the nearly $5k invoice and left the hospital devastated and alone around 2:00am Tuesday morning.
I returned to FTLOP days later to ask Dr. Barker again what had happened. She continued to conceal the truth and pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred during Mia's surgery. She also stated to her staff "I'm afraid of what's going to happen if he finds out the truth."...
In the days following, Dr. Barker repeatedly made attempts to blame everyone involved other than herself. But also made multiple contradictory statements in which she recognized that she is to blame. She knew of the presence of a Mast Cell Tumor near the surgical site and believes she may have ruptured it when she began surgery. This is considered an extreme risk and most veterinarians will not engage in this type of surgery because of it. Dr. Barker then acknowledged to her staff that she failed to properly assess this risk, and failed to proactively treat the MCT with antihistamine before beginning surgery.
HER ENTIRE STAFF OF 10 VETERINARY MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS then came together in solidarity after witnessing these events, walked out on their jobs just days before Christmas, and filed a complaint with the California State Veterinary Medical Board. I was contacted anonymously by one of the staff members and only then notified of the extreme details of this case that Dr. Barker has been trying to keep secret.
I have since been contacted by the California DCA who manages the complaint and given copies of all employee statements filed therein. EVERYTHING written here is taken directly from those employee statements and my direct interactions with Dr. Barker.

OUR GO FUND ME CAMPAIGN:

FRIENDS, this has been nothing short of a devastating and life-altering experience, for me, and for the veterinary staff who witnessed the events. I was left with thousands of dollars in medical bills and the veterinary staff took an enormous financial sacrifice by standing in solidarity with Mia and walking out on Dr. Barker just days before Christmas. Without their honesty and integrity, I never would have known the truth. I now affectionately refer to them as Meatball’s Heroes…

THIS CAMPAIGN IS NOT FOR ME OR MIA’S MEDICAL BILLS!

This campaign is specifically to raise money for Meatball’s Heroes to support them through this transition period while they seek new employment positions.

I WILL NOT TAKE A SHINING RED CENT OF THIS MONEY FOR MYSELF. It’s all for them. I have already financed the medical bills through Care Credit and will eventually pay them off.

If by some miracle we surpass our fundraising goal, I will give additional support to Meatball’s Heroes, and donate the additional funds to local animal welfare/adoption organizations.

If you find yourself moved by the integrity of Meatball’s Heroes, PLEASE consider making a donation to support them.

Thank you,

Russell & Mia Meatball (RIP)