A South Carolina Department of Labor investigation says two veterinarians, practicing at Carolina Forest Veterinary Hospital, violated state codes and regulations.
State investigators found that hospital owner and veterinarian Edward Verville and licensed veterinarian David Howard allowed an unlicensed assistant, Brian Ling, to perform surgeries on animals.
Verville and Howard received a Public Reprimand from the state Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners.
As a part of their agreement, the hospital will no longer allow unlicensed assistants to perform procedures.
Friday night after this story aired, Verville returned our call for comment. When asked why his animal hospital allowed an unlicensed assistant to perform procedures, he told us his practice was not aware of a change in the interpretation of the law that happened in 2009. He said when they became aware of that in April 2011, the veterinary assistant at the animal hospital stopped performing dental procedures on animals.
Mike and Eileen Ott filed the complaint against Verville and Howard after their German Shepard, Molly, died after complications from her dental surgery.
"If we didn't take her for this, she would probably be here today," said Eileen.
In January 2011, the Otts took Molly into Carolina Forest Veterinary Hospital for a regular check up.
At that time, the family says Howard told them Molly was in good health, but needed a tooth pulled.
Howard introduced Ling to the Otts as the clinic's "dental guy".
"We were led to believe that Brian Ling was a licensed vet," said Eileen.
After the surgery, the Otts say Ling told them the surgery failed and that Molly needed to take a drug called Novox to heal.
But Molly didn't get better.
After Mike and Eileen repeatedly took Molly back to the veterinary hospital, the Otts got a second opinion.
That's when they found out the side effects from the Novox were slowly killing Molly, and six weeks after the dental surgery, Molly died at the family's home.
"It was very sad that day," said Mike. "Because she seemed to be getting better when we took her off the drug. Her blood levels came up, but it was just too late."
"You don't bring your dog and think a license veterinarian, that your dog is in their care, and that licensed vet turns over the care to an unlicensed veterinary assistant which resulted in Molly's death."
Verville said he felt they were in no way responsible for Molly's death. He said she was an old dog who also had cancer.
Verville went on to say Molly potentially became ill from a reaction to the surgery, but he says the Otts never came back for a follow-up.
