Bellwether Magazine Volume 1 Number 65 Fall 2006 Article 2 Fall 2006 Barbaro at New Bolton Center: It Takes a Team to Mend a Horse Susan I. Finkelstein University of Pennsylvania Gail Luciani University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/bellwether Recommended Citation Finkelstein, Susan I. and Luciani, Gail (2006) "Barbaro at New Bolton Center: It Takes a Team to Mend a Horse," Bellwether Magazine: Vol. 1 : No. 65 , Article 2. Available at: https://repository.upenn.edu/bellwether/vol1/iss65/2 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/bellwether/vol1/iss65/2 For more information, please contact [email protected]. NUMBER 65 | FALL 2006 bellwetherTHE NEWSMAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE BARBARO AT NEW BOLTON CENTER: It Takes a Team to Mend a Horse Many Species. One Medicine.™ Many Species. One Medicine.™ contents fall OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT, ALUMNI RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATION assistant dean of advancement and communication KATE JUDGE director of communication GAIL LUCIANI assistant director of communication SUSAN I. FINKELSTEIN director of development for the matthew j. ryan veterinary hospital ELANA BECK ARONS director of development for new bolton center JANE SIMONE L director of alumni relations COREEN HAGGERTY major gifts officer DORI MYERS development coordinator for new bolton center PATRICIA HALL marketing communication coordinator for new bolton center r JENNIFER RENCH stewardship coordinator JENNIFER M. WORDEN features assistants e KAREN COGHLAN JOHN DONGES 5 IT TAKES A TEAM TO MEND A HORSE ANDREA WITHERS photographers VET VET JOHN DONGES 14 2 KATHY KRUGER h SABINA LOUISE PIERCE ANIMAL ART ADVENTURE CAMP JENNIFER RENCH 25 writers t SUSAN I. FINKELSTEIN KATHY KRUGER NANCY WEST designer departments e ANNE MARIE KANE We’d like to hear your praise, criticisms or comments. 3 EDITORIAL NOTES Please address your correspondence to: Gail Luciani, Editor DEAN’S MESSAGE University of Pennsylvania 4 School of Veterinary Medicine w 3800 Spruce Street RESEARCH BRIEFS Philadelphia, PA 19104-6010 16 (215) 898-1475 l [email protected] 24 DONOR PROFILE None of these articles is to be reproduced in l any form without the permission of the editor of Bellwether. 26 ALUMNI PROFILE C Printed on recycled paper © Copyright 2006 by the Trustees of the University of e SCHOOL EVENTS Pennsylvania. The University of Pennsylvania values 28 diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or status as a Vietnam Era Veteran or disabled veteran in the adminis- b tration of educational policies, programs or activities; admissions policies; scholarship and loan awards; athlet- ic, or other University administered programs or employment. Questions or complaints regarding this about the cover: policy should be directed to: Executive Director, Office The incredible healing connection between animals and people is the very foundation of veterinary medi- of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs, Sansom Place East, 3600 Chestnut Street, Suite 228, cine. Sometimes our compassion is for all living beings; sometimes just one becomes the focus of our com- Philadelphia, PA 19104-6106 or by phone at (215) 898- mitment to save a life. Dr. Dean Richardson and Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro exemplify that connection 6993 (Voice) or (215) 898-7803 (TDD). here, pictured away from the Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, walking in the sunlight, united in a fight for sur- vival. Photo by Sabina Louise Pierce. Everybody on a championship team doesn’t get publicity, but everyone can say he’s a champion. Earvin “Magic” Johnson barbaro It Takes a Team to Mend a Horse: How New Bolton Center Staff Joined Forces to Help Barbaro BY SUSAN I. FINKELSTEIN AND GAIL LUCIANI WWW.VET.UPENN.EDU/BELLWETHER 5 hey had always been a team; each department, sleep. I knew exactly what the fracture looked like and each person had an integral part in the work- what was ahead of me.” ings of New Bolton Center, the University of By 9:00 p.m., Barbaro’s ambulance, accompanied by a Pennsylvania’s 700 acres in rural Pennsylvania caravan of cars, including a police escort, pulled into New where some of the finest veterinary services Bolton Center. Dr. Barbara Dallap,V’94, assistant pro- available can be found. Doctors and nurses, fessor of emergency medicine and critical care, was wait- Tadmissions and housekeeping staff, telephone operators ing to examine the colt.“The vets at the track did a won- and mail clerks—all were part of an elegant, complex syn- derful job of stabilizing him,” she said.“He was able to ergy of healing animals and helping people.Yes,they had walk into his stall in Intensive Care, where he remained always been a team, but they may not have realized it until for the night.” Saturday, May 20—when a champion horse faltered before the eyes of millions of people.The horse was Kentucky Sunday Morning Derby winner Barbaro, and his larger-than-life presence at the George D.Widener Hospital for Large Animals since News vans, microphones, cameras, satellite dishes, mobile then has connected all New Bolton’s players in not only broadcast towers—not exactly the type of equipment you caring for this horse loved round the world, but in keep- would expect to see at a hospital for large animals, but just ing the Hospital at the top of its game. as familiar a sight outside Widener during those early days as horse vans, trailers and cattle trucks. Journalists from Saturday Afternoon and Night around the world had been at the Preakness on May 20, but immediately after the accident, many began the 82- Soon after his shocking injury barely out of the gate at the mile journey to New Bolton Center to report on Preakness Stakes, Barbaro was stabilized by track veterinar- Barbaro’s condition and the doctors’ plans. ians (which included Dr. Scott Palmer,V’76, and Dr. Saturday night into Sunday—and for days afterward— Dan Dreyfuss, former surgical resident at New Bolton), scores of reporters camped in their cars or vans on the and then rushed from the Pimlico Race Course in Hospital grounds, waiting for news, emailing stories back Baltimore to Widener’s Intensive Care Unit.Well-wishers to big-city or hometown had begun to gather at the Hospital, displaying signs— newspapers, or broadcast- “Barbaro, we love you” and “Good luck, wonder horse”— ing updates to television hoping to catch a glimpse of their fallen hero. Reporters and radio stations.The and broadcast vans came in droves in anticipation of the previous evening at horse’s arrival. Pimlico, the scene had Chief of Surgery Dr. Dean Richardson saw the mis- been “chaotic and border- step that ended Barbaro’s career at the Preakness on televi- line unruly,” according to sion, just after finishing a difficult surgery in Florida. Not Tim Layden, who writes only was he immediately in touch with Barbaro’s trainer the “Inside Horse and veterinarians, radiographs of the right hind leg were Racing” column for e-mailed to him within minutes.“I knew we weren’t SI.com. But Dr. Corinne going into surgery right away; we’ve learned that it’s best Sweeney,Widener to give supportive care for 18–24 hours instead of imme- Hospital executive direc- diately performing surgery,” said Dr. Richardson.“But tor and associate dean for after seeing those radiographs, I didn’t get a whole lot of New Bolton Center, Dr. Corinne Sweeney visits a young horse. barbaro timeline May 6: May 20: May 21: May 22: Wins Kentucky Breaks down at start Undergoes five-plus hours of surgery With a fiberglass cast Derby by 6-1/2 of Preakness Stakes; at the George D.Widener Hospital at from hock to hoof, lengths for sixth shatters three bones New Bolton Center; stainless steel plate settles into stall in straight win. in right hind leg. and 27 screws inserted; surgeon Dean intensive care unit. Richardson calls chance of survival a “coin toss.” 6 BELLWETHER FALL 2006 WWW.VET.UPENN.EDU/BELLWETHER 7 pins and a stainless steel plate.“Barbaro presented with a case that was about as difficult as such an operation could be,” said Dr. Richardson. He had performed many similar surgeries, but this case was more complicated; Barbaro had suffered fractures to his cannon bone, sesamoids and long pastern, and he also suffered a dislocation of the fetlock joint.The long pastern was broken into more than 20 pieces.Assisting in the complex procedure were Dr. Bernd Driessen, associate professor of anesthesia, and residents Drs. Liberty Getman, Steve Zedler and David Levine. The operating room at the George D.Widener Hospital is equipped with a monorail that runs to the recovery pool.The pool-recovery system allows a disoriented ani- mal to waken suspended in a specially engineered harness and rubber raft, allowing him to gallop or flail in the warm water until fully conscious, significantly reducing the risk of re-injuring the damaged limb. Once awake, he is hoisted from the raft and moved to the recovery stall where he can stand at once.When Barbaro’s surgery was completed, he had the first of several successful recoveries in this specially designed pool—a photo of the event taken that evening appeared on the front page of every major U.S. newspaper the next day, and was featured as a Farrier Robert Sigafoos and Dr. Emma Adam with Barbaro. two-page spread in Sports Illustrated the following week. The colt “practically jogged back to his stall” in the handled everything with a “quiet calm,” admired Layden, ICU with the new cast on his hind leg, according to Dr.