Trauma Surgeon Uses Free Time To Operate On Homeless Pets
Dr. John Keating has a full-time job as an orthopedic surgeon at the Atlanta Medical Center, but operating on homeless pets isn’t a job for him, it’s his passion.
Keating said he’s drawn to help the animals in desperate need.
“These are dogs that are doomed. They can’t get adopted. Half the time they’re going to be euthanized if we don’t fix them,” he said.
After 30 years as a trauma surgeon at the Atlanta Medical Center, these homeless dogs and cats give him hope.
“This enables me to keep doing people. Because, you know, you get beat up doing people. You have lawyers, hospital admins, federal government, state government, Medicare, Medicaid. You feel like they’re all against you,” he said. “Here, we’re just taking care of hurt animals. These wonderful souls, who we place in wonderful homes.”
A homeless dog was about to be put down because the surgery to fix his leg was just too expensive for the rescue group taking care of him.
Dr. Keating’s old friend, veterinarian Dr. Goode, couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“Dr. Goode called me and said, I can’t put this dog down. The dog is just too full of life,” he said.
So that Saturday morning, they teamed up to fix the dog’s leg for free.
“We did it, got the dog adopted, lived a happy life with a wonderful family. It was just a huge success story,” said Dr. Keating.
From then on, he was hooked.
They take donations on their website, but mainly, he pays for the surgeries himself.
Dr. Keating has done 86 surgeries for homeless pets so far, with no sign of slowing down.
Source: WTSP
