Dog Saves Man from Heart Attack

February 13, 2001 Huntsville, AL, USA

They can fetch your slippers and bring you the newspaper, but could you ever imagine that a dog would be able to rescue you from a heart attack?  Mike Lingenfelter of Huntsville knows it; his golden retriever Dakota has the amazing ability to sniff out an impending myocardial infarction well before it hits.

Mr. Lingenfelter suffers from severe angina, an inflammation of the muscles surrounding the heart, a condition that frequently results in fatality.  Mr. Lingenfelter himself had two heart attacks in 1992.

Then along came Dakota.  Dakota's story is no less difficult; he had been chained to a cow spike in a Texas yard and had been dying of heartworms when he was rescued by the Delta Society several years ago.  Vets struggled to revive Dakota, even after his own heart had stopped beating.

Once recovered, Dakota was trained as a service dog, whose initial job was simply to encourage his owner to exercise by nudging and pestering, if his owner becomes sedentary for too long.  In 1995, Dakota was presented to Mike Lingenfelter by the Greater Houston Golden Retriever Society.

"The funny part was, I didn't want him," said Mr. Lingenfelter, who after his heart attacks had become deeply depressed and forced into early retirement.

But Mr. Lingenfelter soon learned that Dakota was much more than a health-trainer.  Dakota now began doubling as cardiologist, able to diagnose and interpret Mr. Lingenfelter's heart condition more accurately than modern medicine has offered.  The dog will nudge his owner and even pull him from his chair when a seizure approaches.  This buys precious time, during which Mr. Lingenfelter can take medicine or call for help.

Dakota's talent, which has proven to be 100% accurate, did not come from any sort of training; he simply began doing it.  Mr. Lingenfelter's other doctor Eugene Henderson explains, "Dakota senses something in Mike's body, even before Mike does."  Nobody is sure how.  One theory is that the dog can detect certain enzymes that are released in a human body just before an attack.

Last May the tables turned, and Mike Lingenfelter suddenly found himself in a position to save Dakota's life.  Dakota was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, a form of cancer.  The dog was given an estimated three months to live.

When word spread about Dakota's terminal illness, the producers of ABC's "Good Morning America" (who had been planning to interview dog and owner on TV) found a way for the dog to be treated at the Colorado State Cancer Center, a research facility that studies the effect of new cancer treatments applied to animals.

The Colorado State doctors used a new technique to burn a baseball-sized tumor out of Dakota's chest.  Having also administered several weeks of radiation therapy, daily doses of chemotherapy and acupuncture for the pain, the researchers were successful in halting the spread.  Dakota's cancer is now in remission.

As if saving one life wasn't enough, Dakota's successful cancer treatment may pave the way for further advances in the cancer treatment of animals and humans alike.

Dakota has been honored in the Texas Animal Hall of Fame, and more recently he has been a guest on the USA Network.

Related story: Another Dog Saves Owner From Heart Attack (March 15, 2001)

§§§

^Articles