Bristol family wants answers after dog dies following exam at animal hospital; Vet says he’s not responsible

WARREN, R.I. (WLNE) – The family of a golden retriever that died last week shortly after an exam at an animal hospital in Warren is asking for answers, and wants the veterinarian to be held responsible. The vet, however, says the dog had issues upon arrival and denies playing a role.

Dr. Wade Cordy of Harbor Animal Hospital on Market Street in Warren described Fenway, a 12-year-old golden retriever, as “slow” when she walked in for her annual exam on March 8.

“She wasn’t quite normal upon presentation, slow, the dog was abnormally slow but she was coming in for some large lumps on her side that was unrelated to the case,” Dr. Cordy explained in an interview with ABC6 on Wednesday.

“As the time progressed in short order, (I) took a look at the dog, and she had a perfusion problem. Her gums were starting to turn colors to a purple grayish. (I) immediately called the owners, said we need to look around a little bit, has there been anything unusual?”

“What he said was,” Keith Maloney, Fenway’s owner, explained, “her lips, her gums are kind of pale. Is there anything wrong? I said no, not that I know of.”

Maloney, due to COVID restrictions, wasn’t allowed inside the animal hospital and had to wait outside in the parking lot for Fenway. He said he grew anxious after an hour had passed, and had to use the bathroom.

He said he ended up walking into the office and demanded the veterinary technicians let him use their restroom or give him his dog back.

“I just waited and it was a long time and I heard nothing,” Maloney said. “Another few minutes, five minutes go by and they literally carried her out, two of the techs, with her head hanging over one end and her tail dragging on the other.”

Maloney claims neither the technicians nor Dr. Cordy told him to bring Fenway to an emergency veterinarian to seek better help.

Dr. Cordy says they did.

“What actually had happened was from the time the dog probably left the house, walked into our building, (she) had a bleeding tumor on the heart base kind of like a heart attack. That tumor burst and that’s when we began to catch it, advised the owner something very serious, and we directed him to the nearest ER with the ability to do centesis and heart sticks,” Dr. Cordy explained.

“Dr. Cordy was on the phone with Bay State trying to get the dog in right away, told him to go right there. The dog owner elected to take the dog home, which he did state, for two hours before he went to Ocean State,” said Lexi Sullivan, a veterinary technician at Harbor Animal Hospital.

“We did a scan of the abdomen before we sent the dog out to the emergency room to check for (a spleen issue),” Dr. Cordy explained. “The dog was not bleeding in the abdomen, it was bleeding in the chest but that’s an area that we do not have the ultrasound abilities to do. So we sent them immediately to the closest place that we thought could do it.”

Dr. Cordy said Maloney was first directed to Bay State Veterinary Emergency Services, but they told him they couldn’t take Fenway in. He said he then redirected Maloney to Ocean State Veterinary Specialists in East Greenwich.

But Maloney ended up driving back to his Bristol home with Fenway limp in his backseat. He denies being told to rush Fenway to an emergency room.

“I went home, she was, like, unresponsive, and I then immediately called him and he says ‘she’s very ill, go to the emergency room.’ No explanation,” Maloney said.

He then rushed Fenway to Ocean State Veterinary Specialists, but she didn’t make it and passed away in the backseat.

“Fenway had a mass around her heart and that it had burst and that the likelihood of her surviving that was minimal. That was the first time that I heard anything about a heart problem,” said Maloney, who had been bringing Fenway to the animal hospital since 2016.

“If the owner would stop and listen and stop screaming, he would have gotten an answer as to what had happened. As medical professionals, everything was done top-notch,” Dr. Cordy said.

Maloney claims it wasn’t until the next day that Dr. Cordy spoke to him about what happened.

“He didn’t explain it to me, he called it what it was and said here that’s what she had. I want to know what happened while she was under your care, and why she was released in that condition. If you have this insight, and you let me take the dog and go home and you didn’t call me, I called you? That’s terrible, that’s unprofessional.”

“We were very good clients and then to be treated like this with such disdain,” Maloney’s wife, Susan, added, “is what’s really appalling.”

The staff at Harbor Animal Hospital said they did hand him the paperwork with all of the information on it.

“It says flash ultrasound showed a large volume of pericardial effusion,” said Sullivan as she read the medical report from Ocean State Veterinary Specialists, “and then it says golden retrievers are common to this and it’s a very poor prognosis. So right there, it’s very poor prognosis there’s nothing much even the professionals, the specialists could do at that point.”

Dr. Cordy, who said he and his staff have been cyberbullied and even received death threats since news of this spread on social media, said he welcomes an investigation.

“Have a board inquiry, have other veterinarians look at it. I have no problem with that.”

Maloney said he doesn’t necessarily think Dr. Cordy is responsible for Fenway’s death, but he didn’t like how the situation was handled and still has questions.

“We just want justice for Fenway. She can’t speak, but we can.”

© WLNE-TV 2021