Dog owner sat for 10 hours in Runcorn vet car park while dog treated

Nurse Helen Doyle from Mold in Flintshire knew Paddy’s life was hanging in the balance after seeing the Border Collie’s scans showing a cancerous tumour growing behind his right eye.

Helen waited anxiously outside Northwest Veterinary Specialist (NWVS), Ashville Point in Sutton Weaver, all day as top vet Krizia Compagnone operated on the seven-year-old dog and removed the life-threatening tumour.

Current Covid-19 restrictions meant that Helen couldn’t wait inside the surgery but she knew Paddy was in safe hands.

Helen said: “I had every confidence in Krizia but, being a nurse, I knew exactly how serious this was and exactly what could go wrong.

“It was a dramatic situation and an extremely traumatic time so I just sat outside in my car from 8.10am until 6.20pm waiting for news.”

Krizia’s expert care saved the day and Paddy’s life and Helen praised the vet’s “outstanding work”.

She added: “I owe her a million thanks because without a shadow of doubt, it was Krizia’s professional expertise that has saved him.

“She was fantastic throughout and is one amazing lady.

“I can’t thank her enough for her outstanding work and her people skills are absolutely phenomenal.

“She was honest and direct; she was clinical and professional and she communicated everything so easily and clearly that I totally trusted her right from the start.”

Krizia, a resident in small animal surgery who joined the Linnaeus-owned animal hospital in 2019, is delighted with Paddy’s recovery but admits it was a demanding case and a difficult operation.

She said: “The location of the tumour was very challenging as it involved most of the right side of Paddy’s face and to give him the best possible chance it was important to try to get ‘clear margins’ around the tumour.

“This was very difficult to do while retaining all the important structures of the face and unfortunately we had to remove Paddy’s right eye along with the tumour because they were so close together.

“By removing the eye, we also achieved extra margins during the excision, which helped reduced the risk of leaving any of the tumour behind.”

Krizia added: “It was an unusual surgery and quite challenging but we achieved the clean margins we wanted around the tumour and Paddy has recovered remarkably well.”

Paddy’s successful surgery was followed by a course of chemotherapy led by oncology specialist Jessica Grant and again the outcome was a success.

Helen said: “If you could see Paddy running around in the field with the other dogs you wouldn’t believe he’d lost an eye and almost lost his life.”