How army of pedigree chums saved dog who needed £10k heart op
Online appeal gives Dexter a new leash of life
BOUNDING outside for a walk, Dexter the Labrador looks the picture of health.
Yet he has just become the first dog in Scotland to undergo groundbreaking open-heart surgery.
For five hours seven medics, including two surgeons and two anaesthetists, performed a delicate operation to repair his heart.
The young dog from Dalkeith, Midlothian, was diagnosed with heart failure shortly before his first birthday and his owners were warned he would not reach the age of two without a pioneering procedure available only in London.
They faced a race against time to raise the £10,000 needed to pay for the surgery, which was not covered by their pet insurance.
But thanks to donations from dog lovers across the country, Dexter was taken to the Royal Veterinary College in London earlier last month for the operation to repair a severely malformed heart valve that was preventing oxygenated blood flowing through his body.
His heart was so swollen it was pressing against his wind pipe and leaking blood into his abdomen.
A specialist brought in from Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital operated a cardiopulmonary bypass machine exactly like that used in human heart surgery.
The operation, carried out only once before on a dog, was a success and Dexter returned home earlier than expected last week.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday visited Dexter and his owners, the Kilanowski family, at home to witness his remarkable recovery.
He is still restricted to three short walks a day to enable his internal stitches to heal, but as he pulls on the lead the only indication he has undergone surgery is the patch of shaved fur on his right side.
The Kilanowskis – Fiona, 54, Eddie, 57, and their daughters Zoe, 30, and 27-year-old Kirsty – have watched Dexter in shifts since he returned home. Kirsty, a nurse, said: ‘We pinch ourselves when we are out for a walk with Dexter as it could have been so different.
‘As a pup he loved to run about and could walk for hours before tiring, but suddenly ten days before his first birthday he started having breathing difficulties – it was like he was choking on something.
‘We got such a shock when we were told his heart was so enlarged it was pressing on his trachea.’
She added: ‘Further checks found one of his heart valves wasn’t functioning properly and he was in the early stages of heart failure.
‘We took him to the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh to see a cardiologist and were told the prognosis wasn’t good but he might be a candidate for a pioneering operation in London.’
When clinic appointments and scans took the Kilanowskis over their insurance £4,000 limit they set up a crowdfunding page called Fix Dexter’s Broken Heart. In a few weeks it drew donations totalling £6,595 from 330 well-wishers and the family paid the balance.
Zoe said: ‘We have been so overwhelmed by people’s generosity. It started with people we knew, then donations started coming in from strangers who had been moved by his story. He had only lived for a year and deserved longer.’
Kirsty added: ‘We cannot thank enough all the teams we have seen along the way – they fixed Dexter’s broken heart and saved us from having broken hearts.’
Professor Dan Brockman, who led the team of lifesaving surgeons, said: ‘This is only the second time we have carried out this surgery in the UK and Dexter is the first dog from Scotland to have it.
‘We are very pleased with how the operation went and Dexter has recovered extremely well – he has exceeded expectations.
‘We are optimistic he will now have a normal quality of life and a normal life span, whereas without the procedure he would not have made his second birthday.’
‘So overwhelmed by people’s generosity’