How will you respond to Mr Oakley?

• Option A

  “The murmur I can hear is significant; this means Poppy is more likely to have an enlarged heart. We need to perform a test earlier rather than later to assess the size of Poppy’s heart. Once we know if Poppy has an enlarged heart then we can decide what the next steps are.”

• Option B

  “I understand that this is an unexpected cost; however, Poppy has a significant heart murmur which means it is highly likely that she has mitral valve disease and we need to test for an enlarged heart. If we don’t detect her enlarged heart early enough, it means we’ll miss the opportunity to put her on daily medication to slow the deterioration of her condition. If Poppy does have an enlarged heart, then without treatment she’s likely to go into heart failure and start experiencing difficulty exercising, breathlessness and possibly collapsing in the near future. The earlier we check Poppy’s heart size the better her outcome could be. How does that sound to you?”

• Option C

  “I understand that this is an unexpected cost; however, Poppy has a significant heart murmur that would suggest she has mitral valve disease and we need to test for an enlarged heart. The earlier we check Poppy’s heart size the better the outcome could be, as if she does have a big heart we can start her on a daily treatment that will slow the progression of mitral valve disease and keep her happy and healthy for as long as possible.”