Success Stories

Baby Benjamin, April 2002

The story of Baby Benjamin starts in December of 2001 when his rescuer, and now forever home, saw a photo of him posted on a Labrador e-mail list. Although the post said that he had a strange knot on top of his head
and was partially blind, his rescuer fell in love with him in the photo and decided to check into adopting Baby Benjamin.

His adopter writes: " I researched more on his condition, Meningeoencephelocele. A hole
in his skull....and the 'knot' could contain brain tissue. Researched well to learn that at his age...NOW 3 months...he's stable and he's made it this far without any problems. So then I researched caring for a blind dog.

We decided to adopt him. Funds were raised privately to pay for his
adoption." Baby Benjamin's rescuer then had to find a way to get him from
Missouri to Canada -- a 23 hour drive. She mapped out a rescue run and within 4 hours of asking for help on-line the run was filled! On meeting him at the Canadian border she discovered Baby Benjamin was not partially blind. He was mostly blind. At that point Baby Benjamin's rescuer turned to LABMED for assistance in obtaining an eye exam on Baby Benjamin to determine if he had any useful vision and if there was any type of surgery that could be done to improve his vision. Unfortunately the eye exam showed that there was nothing that could be done for his vision but something unexpected came out of that visit.

Baby Benjamin's rescuer discussed his meningomylocele with the ophthalmologist who said they could look into a case study with the
nearest vet college. They would be able to help determine if there was
brain tissue in the knot on his head through a neurological assessment. The Head of Neurology in Guelph, Ontario agreed to case study Benjamin at no charge for the assessment but determined an MRI was needed. This would have been quite expensive but fortunately an offer was made to do that study free of charge.

The MRI showed no brain tissue in the knot on Baby Benjamin's head and
that the knot could easily be removed but his rescuer has decided not to
put him through the surgery.

The most recent update on Baby Benjamin from his adopter: "Benjamin is now 8 months old. He is growing like a weed, standing in at 60lbs. Healthy as a horse, eats like a horse. He's a ham. He's a joy...and he's what is now my 2nd Heart Dog. I love him as if I had given birth to him myself. He lives an absolute normal life. After a weekend with friends, the husband was very surprised to learn he was blind. After 3 days there....he was clueless!

Thank you again LABMED!" Tina & Baby Benjamin