A search for the needle in the dog

District Court Mülheim / Ruhr complains of documentation error of veterinarian
Mülheim / Ruhr (jur). If a veterinarian has not documented an unsuccessful dog operation and then has also lost the X-rays, he can not claim a fee. This was decided by the District Court Mülheim an der Ruhr in a recently published judgment of 21 July 2016 (Ref .: 23 C 489/15).

Specifically, it was about the mixed-breed dog "Sally", which was brought in July 2014 because of convulsions all over her mother in a veterinary practice. The veterinarians discovered after making x-rays that the dog had swallowed a suture needle, which was located between the esophagus exit and the stomach entrance.

Veterinary practice. Image didesign -photolia

The veterinarians consulted with the dog owner that they want to surgically remove the needle by palpation. But in the surgery, the needle in the dog was untraceable, so that stomach and stomach were closed again by Sally.

The doctors of the veterinary practice presented the dog owner for the unsuccessful OP several bills totaling 1,218 euros. The dog owner did not pay.

If she does not have to, decided the district court. Because the veterinarians would have documented the intervention only inadequately. It lacks a detailed operation report, which shows from which side of the stomach of Sally was opened. In particular, the X-ray images were no longer available. So can no longer be determined whether the dog was X-rayed and operated incorrectly.

"So a surgeon may not work even in his successful operations, certainly not in his failed," the district court judged the documentation deficiencies. The veterinarians could not prove that they have worked according to the rules of veterinary art. A claim for remuneration is therefore not theirs.

The dog is well again, In a veterinary clinic, the now migrated to the lungs needle could be removed. fle