Can't Please Everybody
There is just no pleasing everybody… Yesterday, a young couple brought their cat in that we have never seen before. The lady’s mother is a client, but we have never seen the daughter or the cat. This poor cat was either hit by a car or kicked by a horse the day before. It was seen at another hospital and was diagnosed with a broken leg. The cat was then transferred to a 24-hour hospital for overnight observation to ensure that he was stable while awaiting surgery (by a specialist). Due to financial reason and because the cat seemed stable enough, the owners decided to take the cat home with pain killers and the contact info of various specialist surgeons in the area. The earliest they could get the surgery done is next Monday with one of the surgeons; they thought that was not soon enough and brought the cat to us (probably because her mother was our client).Apparently, the cat did well overnight and from physical examination, despite having a broken leg, he was still in good spirits and was responding well to the pain killer. There were no evidence of trauma the thorax or abdomen. The owners were aware that the surgery is a specialist procedure and understood that we could not have the surgery done at our hospital yesterday. So I advised them to call the surgeon who could do the surgery on Monday back to secure their appointment, meanwhile, I recommended that we keep the cat for the day so that we could put a bandage on him to stabilize the fracture prior to the surgery on Monday. I also told her that I would call a mobile specialist to see if he could come to do the surgery at our hospital the next day. The lady said that she had to work and could not come to pick the cat up later in the evening (even though we close at 9 p.m.); I offered to keep the cat here overnight so that she could pick him up this morning – that would not have worked for her either. She then suggested that she bring that cat back to the first hospital to get the bandage put on because that way, her mother can pick up the cat. At that point, I told her what the cat needed and I did not care who got it done; if it would work for her to bring the cat elsewhere, so be it. She seemed happy with the arrangement.
I proceeded to call the mobile surgeon and see if he could fit this poor cat in. When he called me back, he said that he could try to come to our hospital after his morning surgery only if he finished early, i.e. there was no guarantee. I called the owner back and left a message. She never called me back, so I called the surgeon back and told him not to worry about it.
Today, the mother of the owner called and asked to speak to the manager to discuss what happened yesterday. Apparently she was not happy… but some people never are even if you bend over backwards for them. Perhaps I should have offered to personally deliver the cat to the owner at her work place after we have put the bandage on the cat…. And maybe bring her dinner while I am at it.
posted by Anne-Gigi @ 4:42 PM
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