Devonshire Veterinary Clinic: Smiley Aaron DVM

Dr. Aaron Smiley aka the “telemedicine guru” diagnosed my terrier mix with chronic renal failure in April 2023. She was showing no symptoms and was doing great until he performed a dental on her on June 27th. When I communicated with Dr. Smiley through text as well as an in office visit about her declining health after her surgery he told me a dog does not need to eat for two weeks, American pet owners think their dogs need to weigh more than they do (she had lost 1.2 lbs in 10 days since her surgery at this point), contradicted himself about how he had diagnosed her in April to suit his own needs, prescribed an appetite stimulant and told me to use probiotics. He also suddenly started referring to her as terminally ill when just a few weeks prior he deemed her healthy enough for surgery and a vaccination. After texting Dr. Smiley again several days later that she was not responding to the appetite stimulant I received a ridiculous text and later a phone call from him during which he told me he thought I was just sad because I had a terminally ill dog. After taking her to another practice the following day it was discovered she had gone into acute renal failure from complications with anesthesia and was euthanized on July 11th. If Dr. Smiley had not been so consumed with being in awe of the sound of his own voice maybe he could have actually diagnosed and helped my senior friend in a time when she needed it most. This is not my first bad experience with Dr. Smiley and Devonshire I have chosen to be quiet until now. My dog’s life was treated like it didn’t matter and she did not deserve that.

On 6/27/23 Dr. Aaron Smiley, as was proven by a circumstantially forced 2nd, exploratory surgery done by Dr Smiley, He failed to, in his words, "tie up" 2 tubes/ stumps (right and left Uterine Stumps) during Ginger's spay surgery. Because of Dr. Smiley's incompetence as a surgeon, and his careless inconceivable negligence, Ginger died from massive internal bleeding. The hypovolemia that led to Hypovolemic shock caused unrecoverable and irreparable damage to her body systems and organs systems. It is inconceivable as to how an experienced Veterinary surgeon was able to completely fail to "tie up" (suture) 2 tubes/ stumps (right and left uterine stumps), during Ginger's simple spay surgery, and were left to bleed freely into Ginger's abdomen. Furthermore, why/how was Ginger's hemorrhaging allowed to progress from Hypovolemia to Hypovolemic shock without Dr. Smiley and his, now titled, hospital manager being alerted to her severe/critical decline post operatively. How did her condition go unchecked, unmonitored. It was the surgeons responsibility to monitor her until her discharge from the clinic and/or that of a warm blooded, medically trained clinician who would have been alerted early enough in her decline, for emergency intervention and treatment be done/given to Ginger to save her life. The telehealth monitoring implemented, should be scrutinized and determined whether system was inappropriately utilized in monitoring a post-op patient that failed in detecting and then alerting DR. and/or staff, that she was declining/hemorrhaging. Or was there no medically trained clinician available to monitor her and the other surgery patients that day. Ginger is dead because of the many failings, and questionable fitness of the veterinarian, and absence of qualified or conscientious and caring personnel @ the Devonshire Veterinary clinic on this date. Not only did I have to process Ginger's unexpected, unnecessary and preventable death, I was forced to witness the unconscionable, unethical behaviors and actions, and measures that were taken by Dr. Smiley DVM, his staff @ the clinic, who actively/inactively, knowingly participated in Dr. Smiley's directive to get rid of Ginger before she was allowed to die @ clinic. Their attempt remove/transport/carry Ginger's lifeless, limp, unresponsive, unconscious body away from clinic via a dirty, raggedy blue towel, because, I was told by one of his vet assistants they had no carts @ clinic, to my car, was to prevent an intervention that would lead to the discovery as to why Ginger bled to death. If it were not for my final protest of several for concern for Ginger's decline/life; if it were not for Ginger's final collapse into complete unconsciousness; If it were not for her weighing 78 pounds; If she had been a small dog; if it were not for all the foot traffic witnessing and passing Ginger's lifeless body, they would have succeeded in getting rid of the only evidence that could, would, and did, prove his incompetence and gross, careless Negligence. For clarification purposes for past post and letters, The medical office manager is now the Hospital Manager. The 3 animal assistants who participated in, either actively or inactively in the attempt to remove an extremely compromised animal that was within minutes of dying, that did in fact fade into complete unconsciousness, and did die, are now titled Veterinary Assistants. Following Ginger's exploratory surgery Dr. Aaron Smiley handed me a false sense of hope for Ginger's survival ( My brain knew better, My heart wanted to believe she was going to live) it felt like a positive outcome remained possible, but it was punctuated with the sad reality that Ginger's body systems/organs/cells, were unable to recover from her severe blood loss. Smiley showed no remorse, I witnessed his nervous, fearful and annoyed behaviors as well as that of his staff after they realized they were caught in their acts of deception and their scrambling to recover, to pretend, to stage their last ditch effort of DAMAGE CONTROl. Read Birdeye.reviews. Thank You.

This is my first time there they did a wonderful job and cared about my fur baby

This office and Drs and staff always takes great care of my pets.

Took great care of our dogs, friendly staff, clean environment.

On 6/27/23 Dr. Aaron Smiley, as was proven by a circumstantially forced 2nd, exploratory surgery done by Dr Smiley, He failed to, in his words, "tie up" 2 tubes/ stumps (right and left Uterine Stumps) during Ginger's spay surgery. Because of Dr. Smiley's incompetence as a surgeon, and his careless inconceivable negligence, Ginger died from massive internal bleeding. The hypovolemia that led to Hypovolemic shock caused unrecoverable and irreparable damage to her body systems and organs systems. It is inconceivable as to how an experienced Veterinary surgeon was able to completely fail to "tie up" (suture) 2 tubes/ stumps (right and left uterine stumps), during Ginger's simple spay surgery, and were left to bleed freely into Ginger's abdomen. Furthermore, why/how was Ginger's hemorrhaging allowed to progress from Hypovolemia to Hypovolemic shock without Dr. Smiley and his, now titled, hospital manager being alerted to her severe/critical decline post operatively. How did her condition go unchecked, unmonitored. It was the surgeons responsibility to monitor her until her discharge from the clinic and/or that of a warm blooded, medically trained clinician who would have been alerted early enough in her decline, for emergency intervention and treatment be done/given to Ginger to save her life. The telehealth monitoring implemented, should be scrutinized and determined whether system was inappropriately utilized in monitoring a post-op patient that failed in detecting and then alerting DR. and/or staff, that she was declining/hemorrhaging. Or was there no medically trained clinician available to monitor her and the other surgery patients that day. Ginger is dead because of the many failings, and questionable fitness of the veterinarian, and absence of qualified or conscientious and caring personnel @ the Devonshire Veterinary clinic on this date. Not only did I have to process Ginger's unexpected, unnecessary and preventable death, I was forced to witness the unconscionable, unethical behaviors and actions, and measures that were taken by Dr. Smiley DVM, his staff @ the clinic, who actively/inactively, knowingly participated in Dr. Smiley's directive to get rid of Ginger before she was allowed to die @ clinic. Their attempt remove/transport/carry Ginger's lifeless, limp, unresponsive, unconscious body away from clinic via a dirty, raggedy blue towel, because, I was told by one of his vet assistants they had no carts @ clinic, to my car, was to prevent an intervention that would lead to the discovery as to why Ginger bled to death. If it were not for my final protest of several for concern for Ginger's decline/life; if it were not for Ginger's final collapse into complete unconsciousness; If it were not for her weighing 78 pounds; If she had been a small dog; if it were not for all the foot traffic witnessing and passing Ginger's lifeless body, they would have succeeded in getting rid of the only evidence that could, would, and did, prove his incompetence and gross, careless Negligence. For clarification purposes for past post and letters, The medical office manager is now the Hospital Manager. The 3 animal assistants who participated in, either actively or inactively in the attempt to remove an extremely compromised animal that was within minutes of dying, that did in fact fade into complete unconsciousness, and did die, are now titled Veterinary Assistants. Following Ginger's exploratory surgery Dr. Aaron Smiley handed me a false sense of hope for Ginger's survival ( My brain knew better, My heart wanted to believe she was going to live) it felt like a positive outcome remained possible, but it was punctuated with the sad reality that Ginger's body systems/organs/cells, were unable to recover from her severe blood loss. Smiley showed no remorse, I witnessed his nervous, fearful and annoyed behaviors as well as that of his staff after they realized they were caught in their acts of deception and their scrambling to recover, to pretend, to stage their last ditch effort of DAMAGE CONTROl. Read Birdeye.reviews. Thank You.