Coram Animal Clinic OVER PRICED CARE MISDIAGNOSED NEGLECT Coram New York

I was just made aware of this report and would personally like to set the record straight. Anyone can report whatever they want on the internet and easily mislead people as this client has done. Before I describe the events of the incident in question let me tell you about my career as a veterinarian. I have practiced for 32 years and in those years I have treated thousands of patients with compassion and professionalism. I have also dealt with thousands of owners and have never once had an incident like this with any of them. During those 32 years our practices have provided literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of either discounted or pro bono services to clients and shelters. Let me give just one example of many. The following photo is the current photo of me on our main website at hauppaugeanimalhospital.com:

My partner in this photo is Holly who was brought into our Coram Animal Clinic office in the middle of the day by a petshop employee suffering from a prolapsed rectum. Since this problem went unnoticed for several days her condition was extremely critical. Her chances of surviving were very slim since she was so debilitated and weak and the only treatment option  was to perform emergency surgery on this poor puppy. The other option was euthanasia. Even though her chances were poor, I rescheduled some of our regular appointments and we took her immediately to surgery. The surgery was complicated because we had to remove a 6 inch section of her intestine, and at the end of the surgery her heart suddenly stopped beating due to her weakened condition. We continued to try to save her and performed CPR until she miraculously responded to my staff's efforts.  Although she made it through the surgery her recovery was still in doubt and we didn't know whether she would ever have a normally functioning intestinal tract.

Yet we continued and I personally brought Holly home with me for over a week and kept her on intravenous fluid therapy and antibiotics. During that week she had to be diapered and continually cleaned up. After the initial week of intensive care, her surgically repaired intestinal tract had healed but she had no bowel control and we had to clean up after her all day long. We continued to care for her for the next 7 months and fed her the only diet she could tolerate which I purchased out my own pocket for her at a cost of $7.00 per pound. Finally after 7 months I started to interview candidates to adopt Holly. The potential owners had to accept that she still did not have normal bowel function, but with a strict diet and feeding schedule she had a chance for a relatively normal life. Luckily for Holly the perfect couple came along and she is now a happy healthy pet in a loving family. Holly's surgery and care would have cost many thousands of dollars but was all performed pro bono by me and my staff.  

I am very proud of my record of compassion and charity work and to have one person try to damage that is very disturbing especially since there is more to the story than what the client reported.  In this particular case the client's pet had what is called an aural hematoma which is a common condition seen in dogs. A hematoma is like a blood blister in the ear flap and can be caused by head shaking due to ear infections or allergies to diet. Treating with steroids for allergy is the accepted treatment and most will heal in time. Surgery is an option but not a necessity for this condition and the client was correct in stating that he was given an estimate of $485.00 for the procedure. This was already a discounted estimate since the procedure normally costs over $600.00 with everything. We perform a preanesthetic blood screen, administer general anesthesia for about one hour, perform surgery, administer pain medication and place extensive bandaging around the head. The cost also includes generally 2-3 return visits for rebandaging/rechecks and stitch removal. Even $600.00 is a very fair fee for all of this. 

When the client brought in the dog on the day of the surgery and was reminded that fees are to be paid in full at the time services are performed (which is  always plainly stated and visible at the desk ) he told the receptionists that he only could pay $300.00 so I was asked to speak to him about this. When I went into the exam room the client essentially told me that we should perform the surgery for $300.00 because that was all he could pay and besides he already spent money on previous visits. When I explained that the treatment provided was the accepted treatment and that he was already given an estimate which was discounted, he started accusing me of making his dog suffer because I wouldn't perform the surgery for $300.00 and that the other doctors misdiagnosed his pet which was untrue.

I really don't recall any discussion about payments but would anyone offer someone a payment option when they are belligerent and accusatory like he was? I will say that although we state our policy plainly that the total fee is due at the time the service is performed, we often allow clients to make payments and more than most animal hospitals. Again I can give an example. Just this week we performed a major surgery of over $2000.00 on a client's cat and allowed the client to make payments because she couldn't pay the total amount at the time of surgery. This particular client also had been in collection for non payment of another bill in the past, but we performed the surgery anyway.  So it is clearly untrue that we don't allow payments or work with clients. We also have a current accounts receivable of over $175,000.00. That is all for services rendered but not yet paid for. Obviously it was this client's attitude that led to this event and what he implies about me and our practice is totally untrue.

I believe that exposing your Ripoff Report on the worldwide web was a good idea. A Harvard Business Professor told his class of executives in late 2004 that exposure is a corporation's worst fear. You can type in 269041 at this site and scroll down to the consumer comment entitled "Blame it on a Lawyer" at Ripoff Report #269041 and read more of what the good professor said to his class of executives in late 2004.

Good luck to you and Reese, and make sure to expose your Ripoff Report all over the web at sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook every day!

P.S. Please give us an update on Reese's condition when you have a chance and let us know how she is doing. Thank you.