Quite often veterinarians have to deal with life and death situations, and emergencies that take skill and fast reaction times to treat their patients. Local vets are used to these types of high stress situations, but an incident that occurred a couple of weeks ago at one local vets’ office had then working on a two-legged patient who didn’t have any fur.

Vickie Foster, wife of Claude Foster of Smithville, said that on January 3, the couple and their granddaughter were taking their little Chihuahua to get her shots updated at DeKalb Animal Clinic at 1020 West Broad Street in Smithville. There, the dog was seen by Dr. Amanda Dempsey.

“While we were there, my husband waited in the waiting room while we were in the exam room.” Mrs. Foster explained. “It was about a half an hour, when I heard someone screaming, ‘Call 911. We’re losing him!’”

“My husband has a bad heart, but up to that point it had been no problem,” Mrs. Foster said. “I looked at him and he was as white as a piece of paper. Doctor Dempsey said, ‘His pulse is weak, and it’s getting weaker. I’m going to have to do CPR.’ I went to pieces. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

Dr, Dempsey said it was a chaotic scene. “I was in an exam room working on a patient, and Mr. Foster was sitting in the lobby, when I heard one of the receptionist yell to call 911. Myself and a couple of the technicians came out to see what was going on, and we found the man having trouble breathing.”

“We assessed him and tried to find a pulse,” Dr. Dempsey explained. “I had my stethoscope around my neck and I couldn’t hear a heartbeat. Of course, the receptionist got on the phone with 911, and they dispatched first responders, but in the meantime, he didn’t have a heartbeat and was turning purple. We ended up laying him on the floor and began CPR until the first responders arrived.”

Dr. Dempsey said that she and an assistant, Tia Adcock, worked on Foster, attempting to regain a pulse. “I don’t know how long we worked on him, but it seemed like hours and seconds all at the same time.”

Eventually, Foster’s pulse did come back and he started to show signs of improvement. “I went out and got his medicine and they gave it to him,” Mrs. Foster explained. “All of the sudden he started getting better. He started coming back and then the ambulance came.”

Dr. Dempsey said she is happy Mr. Foster is doing well, but she prefers her four-legged patients. “We had to work on a person and I prefer to never do it again if at all possible. Overall, CPR is CPR and we were able to get a pulse back remarkably. We’re really glad that he is better and that it went the way that it went.”

Mrs. Foster reported that after some time in the hospital, Mr. Foster is now back home and doing okay.