Avenge Kevin's wrongful death

The full story of how I lost my baby and why you can help is finally here. Caution to readers for graphic content. As some of you may know from keeping up with #kevinscampaign, on the evening of December 29th my curious 8 month old companion was hit by a car that didn't even stop. I wish I didn't have to witness it but I'm thankful that I did. I immediately rushed Kevin to the 24 hour emergency Vet 15 minutes away. All I could think about was getting him to help, I didn't even have shoes on and nothing more than a robe. After a painful half hour waiting to hear from the doctor, I was informed that Kevin has two broken legs. His right femur was split and misaligned, and his left tibia was also severely broken. At the time, this was actually good news. I felt like I was levitating on a cushion of gratitude that his life wasn't taken at that time. I was terrified for my baby to be in such pain, but I was so happy to have another chance at life with him it felt like nothing else mattered....Until I was informed that due the holiday weekend no surgeon would do his surgery until Tues Jan 2nd, 2018. Despite my constant pleas to have the emergency surgery done sooner, they assured me that he would be fine for 4 days with 2 broken legs. He layed in the ICU with a catheter and IV in agony for 96 long hours awaiting his orthopedic surgery to put plates and screws to heal his broken legs. I was devastated at this news. I begged daily to have the surgeon just come in and look at Kevin to be sure the surgery could wait. Time and Time again I was told this was unnecessary and Kevin would be fine. Resentfully, I agreed, because what other choice did I have? Meanwhile, my mother and I contacted every emergency veterinary clinic within 300 miles. All answers were the same; the surgeons wouldn't be in until Tuesday. We had to go the course. We had to grit our teeth and bare it. Because of the massive bills that accumulated so rapidly for his round the clock care in the ICU and his approaching costly surgery, I started this GoFundMe to help cover the costs. I diligently campaigned day-to-day because it made me feel useful when I felt like I couldn't otherwise help my baby. The day the surgery came I had one last precious visit with my little man in the morning and then I was told I should go home and stay busy because it could be quite a while until I heard from them again. If I could have frozen time, I would live in that moment forever. It was the last time I saw my baby alive. At 6:03 pm I got a call from the vet. Excited to hear how the surgery went I immediately answered the phone. The surgeon started with, and I kid you not, "Kevin's surgery went really really well. We were able to fix both broken legs perfectly all at once. When we took him to his post surgical x-rays, we noticed he had stopped breathing. We've been doing CPR on him for the last half hour but he is unresponsive." Life shattering news cloaked in "his surgery went really well." He didn't even tell me to sit down. I frantically rushed to the hospital after giving them the order not to stop CPR until I gave the say so. 20 minutes later I arrived to a scene so traumatizing I see it Everytime I close my eyes. I rushed to my baby, I held his paw, I kissed him, I wispered in his ear about car rides, treats, and told him how much I loved him and needed him. All the while the techs were preforming agressive CPR and breathing for him. The tech doing the breathing pump turned to the tech doing compressions and said "I really need to make a phonecall". I don't even need to explain how wrong that is on so many levels. I told her to get out if she wasn't going to do her job and assumed control of the breathing pump. If they were going to give up, I wasn't. I leaned over and whispered to Kevin to come back and that I needed him because I can't do it alone, and the surgeon had the audacity to say to me "he can't hear you, he's unconscious." Bedside manner is clearly of no importance. Then, the miracle that broke my heart into even more pieces happened. I demanded that they push one more adrenaline and epinephrine to try to get his heart beating again, despite them telling me that he's gone, and that we need to give up....Then Rhythm happened!! His little heart started beating on his own, slowly, but beating. Then, he started breathing on his own, but very weakly. I leaned down and I whispered to him "I can't do this without you Kevin you're my whole world, you're my moon and my stars, but if you want to go because it's too hard, you can go baby." And then his little heart gave one more beat, and stopped forever. The pain of the loss physically hurt my heart so badly that I couldn't even stand. Mumbled apologies and condolences and I was showed to a room where they would clean him up and let me see him one more time. My intuition never fails me though, and I requested to see the surgeon in my room immediately. I asked him what the cause of this was. What could possibly have done this. Why would a healthy 8 month old dog, going in for a routine surgery to fix bones, die of apparently no cause, after the surgery was finished and "successful"? He said it was most likely a clot that got stuck in his brain. I asked if this clot could have come from waiting 4 days to do the surgery and his body trying to heal itself and was told that was "ridiculous" and "speculation", and that "sometimes these things just happen and we don't know why." Sorry for the profanity here, I'm a Navy veteran, but ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? the grand finale: when talking about his remains I said "well, if it's such a mystery why don't we do an autopsy?" His answer "that would be unnecessary and wouldn't show anything but heart failure. I suggest cremation because the ground is frozen so burial would be difficult. I'll get that routed for you." I thought it seemed awfully suspicious for a man of science to not encourage an autopsy. What are you hiding?? Long story short, I took my dog, contacted his regular vet, my cousin who is an MD hospitalist and we all spoke. The conclusion is suspected malpractice. 2 doctors agree. My kind, sweet, loving Vet, Dr. Z at Suburban South Veterinary is handling me with kid gloves and taking care of everything from here on out related to Kevin's Autopsy. He said it could take a day, or it could take months, but he called in a personal favor and promises me they will find what went wrong. In the mean time, my family has sought legal advice to prepare to take action when the autopsy results return. So I have decided to continue #kevinscampaign. Unbelievably so, I still had to pay the exorbitant fee for Kevins surgery, even though they killed him. This time I'm hoping for donations to help cover the cost of the legal fees associated with forming a malpractice suit. We're not looking for money here, we are trying to make sure that there will never be another tragedy like Kevin, and that if a surgeon is unable to perform his job properly, he should not be harming animals. We're also starting a trust fund of money that we come by that we will put into it that will accrue interest and that we hope that people will also donate into to help people like me and Kevin for costly unexpected emergencies. Because while your pets life is on the line, the last thing you should have to worry about is cost, and if they're in capable hands. If you've made it this far, I thank you for reading my story, and I hope that it touches you enough to help, once again, spur the call to action. I know you're with me always, Kev. I felt you get into bed with me this morning. Forever missing you and waiting to join you, love you from the moon, sun, stars, and back again. Xo #kevinscampaign