Good boy! Dog’s instincts save the life of stroke victim

A St. Charles, Missouri woman is alive and well – and it’s all thanks to her hero, a white German Shepherd named Max.

Video: Ryan Kim Rescue | Bondi Rescue S6

Sue Sanford was in her upstairs bathroom putting on makeup one morning while her dog, almost 2-year old Max, milled around nearby.

Sue’s husband, Jesse, was downstairs, just about to leave for work, when Max caught his attention.

“He looked at me in an odd way. He started whimpering. He spun around three times,” Sanford explained to KSDK News.

Because of Max’s strange behavior, Jesse followed the dog upstairs to find his wife laying on the bathroom floor, motionless and unable to speak.

Thanks to Max’s quick action, Sue’s husband contacted paramedics who rushed her to a nearby hospital to perform lifesaving surgery.

“This was the kind of stroke that could lead to death in her situation,” said Dr. Amer Ashekhlee, a vascular neurologist. But, because Max knew something wasn’t right and alerted Sue’s husband, doctor’s were able to respond rapidly.

“The dog was the key in this situation,” Dr. Ashekhlee said.

If Sue had not been found and treated within those vital first few moments of a stroke, the outcome would very likely have been tragic.

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Instead, Sue returned home from the hospital just 3 days later, with absolutely no side effects from what would normally have been a deadly stroke.

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