"There will always be
warning about anaesthetic risks for surgeries," I said
to my associate vet. "Now, the Singapore General
Hospital has additional paperwork and advices pre-op as
regards general anaesthetic risks. This is to ensure
that the patient will not use this "lack of information
and consent" for not being informed of the risks, when
things go wrong. There had been a few such cases
reported in the Straits Times newspapers.
"As a vet, how you communicate anaesthetic risks will
depend on you. At least 50% of the surgery cases are
frightened off by warnings of anaesthetic risks. The
client may think that you can't operate on hamster
tumours and therefore give dire warnings as in this case
of the hamster with head tumours. This owner had several
hamster tumours operated at Toa Payoh Vets by me and you
without anaesthetic problems but now she said you warned
about the high risks and therefore she did not operate
when the tumour was much smaller! "
TOA
PAYOH VETS
