How US Teen Suffering From Brain Stroke Was Saved By His Pet Dog

An American teenager Gabriel Tanner suffering from a brain stroke was saved by his family's pet dog recently. The dog sensed a situation and alerted the family about Tanner's severe condition, just in time for them to take him to the hospital.

Sabih Effendi, a neurosurgeon who treated the teenager Gabriel Tanner, said,"it's amazing how adamant a dog was knowing something's going on."

Dog to the rescue

In the early hours of 21 October, Daines and Amanda Tanner were woken up by their border collie, Axel, at around 5:30 a.m.- who they assumed, wanted to go for a walk very early in the morning. However, when the  dog was let outside the room, he raced to the couple's  teenage son Gabriel's bedroom door, frantically clawing at the door in an attempt to get in. 

According to the Washington Post, in bed, Gabriel was already awake- because he was having a brain stroke. The 17-year-old had had a headache earlier in the day at school, but had thought nothing of it and had come home, played video games, then gone to sleep. According to The Good News Network, Gabriel "woke up around 5:00, walked into the living room, felt he couldn’t move his right arm, fell over, watched the objects in the room seem to magnify, and decided to go back to sleep."

Upon hearing this from their visibly disoriented child, who was slurring, Daines and Amanda rushed him to a "Memorial Hermann Health System hospital in Houston where at approximately 6:30 a.m., doctors informed the family Gabriel was having a stroke after a blood vessel broke in his brain and cut off oxygen to millions of neurons," according to the Good News Network. 

Treatment

Thanks to Axel, Gabriel was able to reach the hospital in time, and was able to get the care he needed for most of his previous, pre-stroke abilities to be restored- he is now able to "walk, use his right arm to play his Nintendo Switch, talk clearly, and complete algebra problems on his laptop," according to the Good News Network.

“It’s amazing how adamant a dog was knowing something’s going on,”  said Sabih Effendi, a neurosurgeon who treated Gabriel. Allegedly, she told the family that if Axel the border collie hadn’t intervened when he did, Gabriel would have ben much worse off- he might have been mute, wheelchair-bound, or worse.

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