A miracle dog cheated death by just one millimetre after getting impaled by a stick during a woodland walk. Chester, a one-year-old Hungarian Visla, was left seriously injured when he dashed off into the undergrowth at a park in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.
Owner Bryony Coulthard found her beloved pet cowering in the bushes covered in blood and rushed him to a vet, where he underwent emergency surgery. Vets at Wear Referrals in Bradbury discovered the stick has pierced his ribs and lungs and had stopped just 1mm away from spearing through his heart.
Incredibly, Chester went on to make a full recovery following the freak accident and is now back home with his owners.
Bryony, of Bishop Auckland, said: “My partner, David, had taken him for a walk and Chester romped off into the woods. David called him but, unusually, Chester didn’t come back and was found cowering in the undergrowth with blood on his tummy, although we couldn’t see anything else.
“It wasn’t until we took Chester to Wear Referrals that we were told he was gravelly ill and just how catastrophic his accident could have been. It was unbelievable.
"The stick had entered through this skin, ricocheted off his ribs, fracturing some of them, then gone into his lung cavity and punctured one of his lung lobes. The lobe had to be removed, but the most chilling thing was that the stick had continued through the lung and pierced the sack surrounding his heart.
“They said the stick was just 1mm from spearing his heart. I was just numb at the news and everyone at Wear was saying Chester had been such a lucky dog.
"We’ve just had the all-clear for Chester to go back to normal and he’s doing really well, bouncing around again and burning off all his energy."
Vets at Linnaeus-owned Wear Referrals were able to save the dog's life after carrying out an emergency operation to repair his wounds.
Soft tissue specialist Anna Cronin said: “When Chester arrived, a team effort from our specialist nursing team, anaesthesiologists and surgeons was carried out to immediate further stabilise him. He had two chest drains placed to combat a build-up of air in his chest cavity.
“He was then sent for a CT scan, which identified what looked to be a stick inside the thorax (chest), most likely from the bushes Chester was running through earlier in the day. He was taken to surgery to explore his chest cavity, which revealed one of his lung lobes had been punctured and needed to be removed.
“The stick had also managed to make a hole in the sack around the heart and was a fraction away from perforating the heart. Chester responded well to surgery, though, and was discharged home four days later to continue his recovery with his family.”
Chester required total rest for the first six weeks after his operation and has since slowly returned to his normal routine.
Bryony added: “We’re so grateful to Anna and the amazing team at Wear. They were absolutely wonderful, giving us regular updates and guiding us every step of the way.
“We’d recommend them one million per cent as they were so lovely to Chester, treating him like one of their own, while giving us constant reassurance and support. We couldn’t be more thankful.”
