These wounds often look minor on the surface, but can be life-threatening without medical attention. Most of them, like Toby, are simply dogs running in the woods or yards that happen to hit a branch or stick at just the wrong angle. While Toby’s story might seem like a freak accident, these types of impaling injuries are more common than you might think – our critical care department estimated that they see over a dozen every year through our ER alone. The operation went smoothly with no other problems, and after a few days of recuperating in the hospital Toby returned home to his family feeling much, much better. She sent Toby and his family over to our 24/7 ER in Middletown for a surgical exploration of the wound.ĭuring the procedure, the doctors quickly realized that although Toby’s wound was less than an inch long, it was very deep – it penetrated at least 7 inches into his chest! An emergency thoracotomy (chest surgery) was performed to clean the wound and place a drain to allow it to heal correctly. If that was the case, it would allow fluid and gas to build up around Toby’s heart and lungs and become life-threatening. Urbonas examined Toby and became suspicious that the wound may actually be much deeper than it appeared – possibly even deep enough to reach his chest cavity. Concerned, they brought Toby in to our Urgent Care hospital in Madison to get him checked out. Toby, a 6-year-old Goldendoodle, was out enjoying a run through the woods when his family saw blood and what appeared to be a small wound on his chest. For Toby, what appeared to be a small injury was quickly discovered to be much, much bigger. You never know what you're going to find when a case comes into the emergency room - sometimes things that look serious can turn out fine, and sometimes things that you think are one thing turn out to be another. Posted on How a Walk in the Woods Turned Into Emergency Surgery
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