Equine ER author Leslie Guttman at the Kentucky Book Fair this Saturday, Nov. 7!

On Monday in Part 6 of this excerpt from the new book Equine ER, we returned to the operating room where surgeon Scott Hopper was trying to remove a portion of the small colon trapped in a diaphragmatic hernia of Marching Orders. Today, we find out what happened to the stoic Thoroughbred with the big heart who transformed an inmate's life. 

Dr. Scott Hopper turned back to surgical resident Dr. Travis Tull, the nurses, and visiting vets and students, “It’s even more near the liver and stuff,” he said of the hole. “We could leave it in there, but right now everything’s running into it … and the small colon is losing blood supply.” It was almost like the hernia had a pattern now, he said, one of drawing in more of the intestinal tract.

 Thoroughbred Marching Orders in his prime.

The mood in the room had changed from relaxed to strained. For the third time, Tull made the incision in the horse's abdomen bigger to give Hopper more room. Hopper asked Dr. Megan Romano to slightly turn down the amount of air the ventilator was pushing into the horse’s lungs because some of the lung tissue also kept returning to the rent.

Finally, Hopper said to Romano: “Go call it,” to note the time of euthanization. “Goddamn,” he added, mostly to himself. He asked one of the nurses to get the number at the Blackburn prison and left the operating room without saying anything.

I walked up to the front of the table. The horse’s eyes were glazed. He was missing a tooth on his right side. The room became quiet as the respirator and ventilator stopped. Tull carefully sewed up the incision.

Monday: How did former inmate Chris Huckleby handle hearing of Marching Orders' death?

We recently got a letter from reader Jackie Betts, telling us what she thought about the new book Equine ER (Eclipse Press, 2009). She wrote: "I found myself swept up in the day-to-day, sometimes minute-to-minute drama of this group of dedicated [vets] ... [the book shows] their private moments of fatigue and doubt and tears; all of this information is accessible and captivating."  To order Equine ER, click here.