Tanner
Kathleen and Tanner
I believe that our dog Tanner helped save my husband's life. He had a sub arrachnoid brain hemmorhage early morning on Nov. 8, 2009. He was rushed to the hospital and I was told that 85% of the people die with this, 15% live and 10% have a full recovery. The neurological group of doctors decided to do a ventricular colostomy and had him in ICU within 2 hours. There began a long week of waiting for Joe to wake up. At the end of the first week they lessened the sedation to see if he would wake up. He didn't. We went into the second week with things not looking very good. An ICU nurse told me it's like coming thru a fog. You have to want to come thru it on your own. I felt that if I could bring Tanner into the ICU that she could make a difference for him. A nurse named Ellen went to bat for me and by Thursday of the second week, when I got there, the nurse manager told me to go get my dog. I came right back home and picked up Tanner and we headed for the ICU. Tanner had also been not eating or sleeping or playing. She needed to know that he was somewhere. We went to Harrisburg Hospital ICU (where they don't allow flowers, let alone pets) and she sniffed him and then jumped up onto his head and licked Joe's face until he responded to her. He woke up thanks to her. She then sat by his side each day waiting for him to say something to her or she would lick his arm. We were able to have unlimited pet therapy written in his orders which meant that she could be in any hospital or rehab we ended up in. She followed him to the 5th floor and then to Osteopathic Rehab, slept on his bed or in the empty bed in his room. I am so happy to say that Joe has made a full recovery (part of the 10%) and we owe it to Dr. Ostdahl, Harrisburg Hospital for willing to try something differnt, and Tanner.