Buy a Surgical Monitor for Cascades Humane Society

My daughter, Sarah, has become a highly skilled veterinarian providing care for animals with all kinds of medical issues. Following in her mother's footsteps, she is passionate about helping those in need. Rather than working in a higher paid private practice, she has opted to dedicate her professional life to shelter medicine. The work is very rewarding; it is also challenging and sometimes heart wrenching as she sees animals who need a higher level of care and resources that simply are not there. One night recently, she came home to tell me about a very sick kitten that she had lost on the operating table while doing a routine spay. While the chances of successful surgery were slim, she was distraught as she considered what factors might have made the situation have a better ending. As a physician, I understand this truthfully important line of thinking. It is what makes us become even better health care providers each day, and it is what motivates us to continually seek ways to provide optimal care to our patients.

The reality for these animals requiring surgical intervention is that it is not refinement of the procedure or training that could improve the outcomes. It’s an expensive piece of equipment that her nonprofit can’t afford. This is something I can help to fix.

This holiday season I am working to raise funds to buy Cascades Humane Society, a multiparameter patient monitor called the Bionet Veterinary Monitor. This will allow Sarah to continuously monitor each animal’s heart rate and rhythm, respirations, oxygen saturation, temperature, and carbon dioxide levels while under anesthesia – far better anesthetic monitoring than is currently available at the shelter. Studies have shown that monitoring decreases the odds of anesthetic death by a factor of 18 whereas lack of monitoring increases the odds of anesthetic death by a factor of 5–35.5.

Since Sarah accepted the position as Medical Director for Cascades Humane Society, they have gone from doing almost exclusively spay and

neuter surgeries to providing many surgeries which improve the health and comfort of the animals they serve. Sarah does 150 surgeries a month at Cascades. These include many dental cleanings and extractions which allow animals to eat comfortably, maintain nutrition, and avoid disease. She does leg amputations for unsalvageable injured limbs, facial deformity repair, removes painful ruptured eyes, mass removals, and many other surgeries in addition to spay and neuters.

I need your help! I want to help my daughter, Cascades Human Society, and 1800 animals each year to have an even better chance at survival and living comfortably with their adopted forever family.

There are three things you can do to help me solve this problem!