The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
The lights were dimmed in the radiology control room as the patient was placed on the CT scanner bed, and technical manager Diane Nolette sized him up.
"That is as far as he's going," she decided.
J. George, at 137 pounds, barely fit into the machine, but that is because Jersey George is a loggerhead sea turtle, as broad as he is long.
Nolette typed his name into the computer system and considered how to record the type of scan.
"I'm gonna list it under 'chest,' " she said.
Dr. George then entered the room, and if this is getting confusing, perhaps it would help to know that the Bon Secours Health Center had offered to the Virginia Aquarium stranding team a free CT scan of Jersey George, sea turtle, to help Bob George, veterinarian, figure out why Jersey George can't dive.
"His caudal end is buoyant," said the stranding team's Christina Trapani, and Dr. George translated: "He floats with his rear end up like a crab pot marker."
Jersey George was found on a New Jersey beach Aug. 1, 2009. He had been hit by a boat propeller, resulting in three large cuts across his back and paralyzing his rear flippers.
The aquarium agreed to take him into rehab, and J. George has responded well over the past year. But periodically his rear end floats up, a problem for an air-breathing animal that must dive for food.
The movable bed slid the turtle into the machine, and a ghostly image of his innards appeared on the computer screen.
"Here's the soft tissue," Nolette said, pointing.
"You can see his lungs are nowhere close to symmetrical," Dr. George said.
Nolette pointed out what appeared to be a pocket inside J. George.
"If that fills up," said Dr. George, "that's why he floats."
Nolette zeroed in on the turtle's lower spine, where a clear gap could be seen, explaining the paralyzed flippers.
The buoyancy issue is a bigger problem.
"If we can't fix it," Dr. George said, "he's not going to be releasable."
Jersey George is not the first rehabbed turtle to be too buoyant, Trapani said, but the problem usually resolves itself. J. George is going on his 13th month in rehab with no end in sight, except his own, when it sticks out of the water.
If the CT scan reveals the problem, Dr. George will try to repair it.
He praised the merits of the long holiday weekend, which he expects to spend reviewing the hundreds of computer images of J. George's insides, each one a tiny cross-section taken from a slightly different location.
When the scan was done, J. George was hoisted in his bright yellow turtle sling, which is sort of a sack, and returned to the aquarium for more rest and relaxation over Labor Day.
Dr. George lingered to look at the scans, still on the computer screen. Trachea, esophagus, lungs, spine and strange pockets that shouldn't be there.
"He's a pretty cool guy. He's a survivor," Dr. George said of J. George, and of the CT scans, "Wow, that's stunning."
Diane Tennant, (757) 446-2478, diane.tennant@pilotonline.com
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Yeah it's a turtle!
Wow. Some can't be happy that people are still kind-hearted in this world and want to take care of the animals we as humans have harmed. The Aquarium is the #1 tourist attraction besides the beach here. It educates your children, helps stimulate the economy and is only partially funded with tax payer dollars (WHICH GET PAID BACK WITH PROFITS). Ghandi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Be proud that tax payers are not cruel individuals who refuse to give helpless animals pennies in tax $$.
Geez...
They run a scan of a turtle, report on it and it turns into a liberal v. conservative nag fest.
Who paid for it? Who cares? It got done. Some people will like it and others wont. So what?
Life goes on.
Why?
Are you bringing up the liberal vs conservative nagfest with this poster? Political afiliations are not even mentioned in the posting. The liberal vs conservative argument was brought into this chain of postings a little further down. That is where your posting should have been directed-in my opinion. As that is where liberal tree-huggers are mentioned.
Rehabilitation?
This is the dumbest thing I have read in awhile. Not that I hate turtles but all the money, time and energy going to "rehabilitate" this one turtle (who probably should not be put back into the wild anyway if it's paralyzed) would be better spent helping to protect nests and baby turtles.
The turtle was injured by
The turtle was injured by man, so shall he be helped.
[from one of the books not included in the Bible]
I'm so glad. . .
That we have vets like Dr. George to help repair injured animals, reptiles and things of the like. I give over probably more than 3K annually to wildlife related causes as they were here first.
Virginia Aquarium
How much did this cost me, a taxpayer? I believe the beaching crew and the Virginia Aquarium waste too much money and call it "whatever." I could care less that somethings amiss with the stupid turtle. STOP SPENDING MY TAX MONEY LIKE THIS!
some of the so-called "elite"
would gripe if you gave them a million bucks because the mix of the bills wasn't to their liking. (That's "elite" in their minds.)
Ok i'll say it first
So who paid for this? I know the article says the hospital offered the machine, but who really foots that bill?
I know all the liberal tree-huggers will hate me for this and I'll get a lot of thumbs-down for my post, but I think it's pretty sad that this animal has received better treatment than many humans in our country can get. By no means am I supporting a socialistic healthcare, but I find it funny that the liberals who want all humans to get free healthcare are also the ones that think animals deserve treatment like this. Imagine how many people could have received medical services. I mean that's what you guys are all about right?
Let the games begin.
Yea, I was thinking the same
Yea, I was thinking the same thing. In America, people go into bankruptcy to discharge their high medical bills, and these are often people who have medical insurance. If only they were cute turtles and not ugly people!