Not that long ago, Hana would have been, as they say, put down.
But instead of euthanasia, the Vancouver Aquarium Pacific white-sided dolphin got emergency and groundbreaking bowel surgery that began Thursday night and wrapped up Friday just prior to midday.
The 21-year-old female pulled through, but was weak as of Friday afternoon and on round-the-clock medical watch.
“What we have is a very sick dolphin,” Dr. Martin Haulena, head veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium, said after surgery was complete. “What we did was quite radical and new.”
It was the first time general anesthesia had been performed on a Pacific white-sided dolphin and the first bowel surgery ever performed on a dolphin, whale or porpoise.
Because they live in water, every breath a cetacean takes is a conscious decision, which made the surgery extra risky. Hana was hooked up to a mechanical respirator.
One of two remaining Pacific white-sided dolphins at the aquarium, she was fine last Sunday, but Monday when staff arrived she was listless and wouldn’t eat.
“Hana never had a sick day in her life,” Haulena said. “She’s never been off her food, she’s never not wanted to interact with people.”
Blood tests indicated some internal inflammation, but nothing yet serious, he said.
But by Wednesday she was severely sick with what turned out to be a life-threatening gastro-intestinal disorder.
Calls for help went out and leading specialists — a surgeon, anesthetist and radiologist — were flown in from as far away as Florida, Colorado and San Diego.
Local hospitals and pharmacies, meanwhile, pitched in with medical supplies and equipment.
With Hana rapidly deteriorating, according to ultra-sound and X-ray readings, the decision to perform a risky operation was made Thursday evening.
Seven vets were involved in a medical team that counted 40 people.
“We flew in the top-notch people in the world,” Haulena said. “It was a dream team.”
Haulena wasn’t sure what caused Hana’s sudden and rapid decline, but speculated some sort of bacteria may have taken advantage of a weakened state caused by some sort of pathogen.
A Pacific white-sided dolphin has been recorded living to 37 in captivity. Haulena estimated Hana to be in late middle age.
Hana was one of three Pacific white-sided dolphins rescued from a Japanese fishing net in 1991 and delivered to Vancouver in 2005 once Japanese officials deemed them unreleasable.
Spinnaker, a male, died three years ago at an estimated age of 25.
The third one is a healthy 27-year-old female named Helen.
“I’m as convinced as I always have been that if you are a sick marine mammal, this is where you want to be sick,” Haulena said.
Hana remained weak and unresponsive on Friday afternoon and was under “very intensive care,” the vet added.
He listed her condition as “hour-to-hour.”
“At the end of the day, an animal we care about is in very rough shape,” he said.
“I’m worried about her.”
gordmcintyre@theprovince.com
Aquarium dolphin survives groundbreaking surgery
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