An American rescue dog is enjoying a new lease of life after taking a 7,000-mile trip to the UK for life-saving heart surgery. Blanche the Chihuahua was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and her owner Hannah Robinson was told that her only option was for Blanche to have palliative care.
However, Hannah was determined that Blanche would get the surgery she needed but after doing some research, she realised it was only available in the UK and the Far East. She got in touch with specialist vets Dick White Referrals in Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire, and after speaking about the process, she decided to go ahead with the surgery. Blanche and Hannah then boarded a flight from their home town of Kansas in the USA to England - so Blanche could get the life-changing surgery.
Hannah said: "Blanche had been given about a year, so I was racing against the clock to help her. I spoke to the team at DWR and then I got the call from them to say ‘how soon can you get here?’ We flew there within two-and-a-half weeks and Blanche had the surgery."
After a successful procedure, Blanche was suddenly unable to breathe on her own and needed to be placed on a ventilator and luckily the pooch's health improved.
Hannah said: "I went in to see her, gave her my shirt and said ‘Blanche, please don’t let me fly home without you’. But I believe in miracles and I got a call the next day to say she was improving.
"She was on the ventilator for 24 hours and then she was on oxygen for four or five days. Throughout, she received 24-hour nursing care and, day by day, she got better."
After two weeks at the surgery Blanche was discharged and flew back to Kansas a week later with Hannah, where she continues to enjoy a good quality of life.
Hannah said: "I still look at her and think that no matter how badly a day is going, at least I have Blanche with me. I never thought I would fly to the UK by myself with a sick dog.
"Along the way you meet all these brilliant people. The amount of love and support I got from all those people was really nice. It’s amazing this little dog had all these people rooting for her. I can’t say enough good things about the team at DWR, I have never met such compassionate people."
Poppy Bristow, head of cardiac surgery at DWR, said: "Blanche was a very challenging case, but she was a real fighter. During Blanche’s time with us our team all grew very fond of her and we’re so pleased she is doing really well back at home in the US."
