The Lion, The Dentist and The Pulse Oximeter

“Would your device work on one of my patients?”, the gentleman sitting next to me asked.

The year 1987, the place a British Dental Association meeting somewhere in London. I had just addressed the British Dental Association advisory panel on Safety in Anaesthesia and Sedation headed by Professor Poswillo and had been extolling the virtues of a newly available piece of monitoring equipment which could, in real time non invasively, measure a patients pulse rate and oxygen saturation; The Pulse Oximeter.

Needing to know more before handing over nearly £2000 worth of monitoring equipment, I was told by the eminent and forward thinking dentist, Peter Kertesz, about a pending case involving a patient of his called Arthur.

A week later, the pulse oximeter and local rep Heather were duly dispatched. Luckily I was in the office when Heather rang me in a panic, she couldn’t get the monitor to work! Peter, I learned, was operating with a headlight on which was interfering with the monitors operation. We had originally thought we could use Arthur's tongue for the clip sensor as sadly, Arthur, being a lion, didn’t have the fingers and toes we were so used to, but the strong light stopped that. Hairy ears also precluded the successful operation of the monitor...what to do? Quickly thinking back to base principals of Pulse Oximetry...a well perfused capillary bed, with minimal pigmentation and accessible, Heather was instructed to put the “finger sensor” on Arthur's prepuce, to great effect!

Over the years, it has been my privilege to have been involved in a number of interesting cases with Peter, a particularly memorable one being, The Lioness, The Dentist and the BBC.

This is arguably the first time a pulse oximeter was used to monitor a Veterinary patient outside of the development laboratories, and I shall be eternally grateful to Peter for asking me that question. It took several more years before I was able to really introduce Veterinary Anaesthesia to the pulse oximeter and that took the help of another caring and very influential and inspirational lady: Polly put the Pulse Ox on.

Birmingham, Paris, Barcelona, London

Birmingham, Paris, Barcelona, London, that will be a list of shows (so far) that we are attending in 2013:
BSAVA,Paris Vet Show, ISFM Barcelona and the London Vet Show

New Year, New Blog, New Products, Bringing the Magic to the Consult

Happy New Year, we are working hard to make 2013 even better and brighter with some great new productcs like the new VM-2500 portable capnograph, making capnography even easier and a major new project, to Bring some Magic into the Consult

Congratulations to Samantha Parkhouse from Wear Referals for winning the Thamescope competition

Thank you to everyone who visited us at the recent BSAVA and a special thank you from Mike to everyone who asked about his recent 3 month adventure living and working in Malawi at The Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic www.billysmalawiproject.org/ and the Cheetah Conservation Fund www.cheetah.org/.

We will post a couple of pictures in a special gallery.

Congratulations to Samantha Parkhouse who won our Thamescope competition, your scope will be with you shortly Sam, it looks fabulous. To all you unlucky people (and there were over a 100 of you!) Mike will be writing to you shortly with a special time limited offer.

Cheetahs and Competitions

Congratulations to Louise of Rose Cottage Vets who has won our free draw to win a Thamescope Cardiology Stethoscope www.thamesmedical.com/product.php?xProd=54. Well done Louise, your Thamescope is on its way to you now!

Thank you to everyone else who entered, better luck next time.

Thank you also to everyone who visited us at the show, and thank you for all the positive comments on ourhttp://www.thamesmedical.com/section.php?xSec=6 and our decision to only sell what we can service or repair ourselves.

This month sees us establish links with the http://www.cheetah.org/ in Namibia, to whom we have supplied one of our new Pulse Oximeters along with some Blood Pressure kit.

Mike, meanwhile, is on hen re-homing duties at the end of the month, assisting with a major battery hen rescue/re-homing day.

Spring is here it must be BSAVA time

After a busy winter at Thames Towers since the last update including things like meetings with The President of The Veterinary Association for Thailand, Snorkelling with Black Tipped Reef Sharks, chasing foxes away from chickens, we are now prepared for the Annual BSAVA meeting at the IEC in Birmingham March 31st to April 3rd.http://www.bsava.com/BSAVACongress/tabid/74/Default.aspx.

Do come and visit us on stand 919, where we will be very happy to show you our brand new monitoring range, from the Multi Parameter Innocare-Vet to the new VM-2500 Capnograph Pulse Oximeter and the fantastic value for money VM-2160 Pulse Oximeter. All European made and all compatible with the new UYB rectal/cloacal sensor from your truly.

Summers over here comes Autumn and the London Vet Show

Our summer ended on the amazing Greek Island of Santorini http://www.ava2010santorini.org/

Thank you Dimitris for a fabulous meeting and good clinical speakers, that was a meeting to remember. Click here for more details on the Association of Veterinary Anaesthetists http://www.ava.eu.com/

We are now preparing for a busy Autumn schedule, with the company exhibiting at the London Vet Show, Stand D160 where we will have some beautiful new and show only designed Thamescope Stethoscopes, perfect Christmas presents for those hard to buy for Vets and Nurses. http://www.londonvetshow.co.uk/

On the Thames Medical hen front, Sapphire and Emerald have agreed to help a lonely orphaned girl called Caramel, a blue egg laying Leghorn, who will be joining us in a couple of days time.

Mike meanwhile is preparing for a return to the velodrome at the League Of Veterans National Track Championships in October, ride hard Mike.