PORTSMOUTH — She had weathered heart surgery in good shape but Oki, an elderly Akita, almost lost it all during recovery. The dog was sleeping in his recovery room cage early last Thursday morning when a Jeep careened across the parking lot and through the front wall of the Mount Hope Animal Hospital at 2:50 a.m.

"It missed him (Oki) by five feet. He's fine but it was a close call," said Dr. Christopher Bert.

It was also a close call for the inhabitants of the hospital's 80-gallon aquarium located just three feet from an interior wall that was knocked out, and the four resident cats who were spending the night in the basement. Fortunate too is a hospital technician who lives in an apartment upstairs.

The Jeep sits inside the Mt Hope Animal Hospital shortly after 3 a.m. last Thursday.

Awakened by the crash and the alarm it set off, that technician called Dr. Bert at about 3 a.m.

The veterinarian arrived minutes later to find his hospital a mess. The Jeep, with five people inside, had driven south down the Mt. Hope Bridge, across the parking lot and into the hospital.

"The entire vehicle came to rest inside the building," Dr. Bert said, destroying both the examining room and the surgery suite. It knocked a hole through the front wall and tore down part of an inside support wall.

The Jeep also took a heavy toll on hospital equipment. A chemical analysis machine worth $10,000 was destroyed as was a new $5,000 stainless steel examining table that was hit so hard it broke into five pieces. Also lost were microscopes, centrifuges, cabinets and other gear. Total replacement cost for ruined equipment will probably range from $50,000 to $70,000 — and that doesn't count building repairs.

The accident also wrought havoc with the hospital's schedule. All Thursday appointments were canceled as workers there cleaned up, and surgeries were called off into the weekend while a temporary surgery room was set up out back. Dr. Bert said he hoped to return to a more normal schedule this week.

"This hits right in the middle of our busiest month." With the arrival of warm weather, people typically tend to get pets treated for fleas, ticks, heartworm and other outdoor-related problems.

The driver, identified as Kendra Lee, 20, of Medfield, Mass, and her four passengers emerged unhurt. Portsmouth police said Ms. Lee passed a field sobriety test but was charged with speeding (given the weather conditions — rainy) and failure to stay in the proper lane.

According to police, Ms. Lee said she was unfamiliar with the road and was driving her 2000 Jeep Cherokee too fast to make the corner at the bottom of the bridge. She said she had been in Providence and was headed home.

Guardrail request issued

Dr. Bert said this is the worst, but scarcely the first instance of a southbound vehicle missing the turn at the bottom of the bridge and landing on animal hospital property.

A drunk driver missed the turn and went through bushes alongside his building one night last summer. The night before that, a tractor trailer truck went astray in almost the same place, and there have been other cases.

The day after last week's crash, Dr. Bert called the state Department of Transportation and requested that a guardrail be installed to protect the property. Within a day, the DOT had dispatched an engineer to inspect the site but Dr. Bert has not yet learned whether the guardrail request will be granted.

"Had this happened in the daytime, it could have been a lot worse ... If I had been doing surgery when that car came through, I wouldn't be talking to you now."

By Bruce Burdett

bburdett@eastbaynewspapers.com