‘It was a challenge’ Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick recalls ‘life or death’ procedures

Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick discusses difficult operations

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Noel Fitzpatrick, 53, has spoken about “life or death” procedures he has had to do and having to draw on what’s inside to complete them. The Supervet spoke to Chris Evans this morning on Virgin Radio to promote his new book Vetman and his Bionic Animal Clan.

It was a challenge.

Noel Fitzpatrick

Chris asked Noel about how he completes his “hard” procedures.

Noel responded: “To be great you need to tap into the thing inside you that is uniquely you and be prepared to pay the price to grab it.

“That usually means quite a lot of effort.

“But there are moments six hours into a surgery…”

Chris interrupted: “Six hours? I was with you once when you did a really long procedure.

Noel replied: “Yeah that was a show one mate, it was a challenge.

“A hip replacement normally takes me 50 minutes and that one took four and a half hours but a skin to skin hip replacement should only take 50 minutes.”

Noel then tried to explain the procedure taking a long time to Lewis Hamilton.

He said: “I mean Lewis Hamilton wouldn’t expect to pull into a pit stop and not have a hammer ready.

“When you’re in a long one and you’re up against it and it’s life or death.

“I had one last week with a great dane called Elsa, a beautiful dog. This is quite profound because everybody said it was impossible to treat her, literally everybody.”

Chris asked: “What was wrong with her?”

Noel replied: “She had a condition which is a squishing of the spinal cord in the neck by bony growth which is very difficult to treat if it’s had multiple sites.

“We found a way with Christmas tree spacers to space the vertebrae apart and place them together with sadals from a horse and dumbbells from the gym.

“Three things from everyday life and fuse the neck by spreading the carriages apart and increasing their volume.”

Noel then compared the luck he had in performing this surgery to his character in his new book Vetman and his Bionic Animal Clan.

He said: “Elsa who was not for this world, we were in a very difficult situation last week and blood was bad and so on.

“I did think of Vetman, and he has been my little guardian angel.

“And yesterday Elsa walked, and we were near tears as it was a little miracle.”

The Supervet has previously owed his TV career to the Virgin Radio DJ, who helped him get his TV breakthrough.

In an interview earlier this year, he recalled how he came to have his own show, the first he did on TV.

He rose to fame as The Bionic Vet on BBC in 2010, after Chris recommended him to the broadcaster following meeting him at his practice.

“Chris Evans came in with his dog Enzo,” Noel smiled.

“He is a dear friend and a beautiful human being. We would sit and talk in the garden outside the practice.”

The series ran for one season, before Noel was picked up by Channel 4 and given a new title, one that will stick with him forever – even in daily life.

The Supervet began in 2014 and is still very much running today, 16 series later.

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