Family dog is being hailed as a hero for saving a teenage boy from a stroke that could have killed him
A beloved rescue dog saved a Texas high school student from a near-fatal stroke by refusing to come from outside his bedroom door — much to the disbelief of the teen’s parents, who never suspected anything was wrong.
Around 5 a.m. on August 26, Amanda Tanner was woken up by Axel, the family’s one-year-old border collie.
‘He didn’t want to give up. He kept jumping on me with both paws and kept me upright,” Tanner, 44, told Good Morning America.
Her husband, Daines, went downstairs and opened the sliding door to let the dog out, but Axel stopped in front of their son’s bedroom and refused to move.
Unbeknownst to the couple, 17-year-old Gabriel had suffered a stroke after getting up early in the morning and collapsed when he returned to his room.
Axel, a rescue border collie, alerted the family of 17-year-old Gabriel when the boy suffered a stroke in his room
When Gabriel’s parents found him, he could not raise his right arm and had difficulty speaking
The one-year-old border collie sat outside the teen’s bedroom door and refused to budge, raising suspicions that something was wrong
‘I was on my way back to my room. “I just felt like everything was around me and moving around me,” Silva said.
Tanner said she never thought about checking on the teen because she expected him to sleep in, like any teenager.
Gabriel had just taken his senior pictures the day before. He was an avid football player who would soon graduate from high school. But when Daines entered the boy’s room, he quickly realized something was wrong.
Gabriel suffered an ischemic stroke. A blood clot had formed in his brain, depriving it of the oxygen it so desperately needed, rendering him almost non-verbal.
“He got to the point where he couldn’t say any words when he was in bed with me,” Tanner said. “He started crying.”
The family rushed him to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Texas, where they learned that Axel may have saved his life.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Sabih Effendi was part of the team that treated Gabriel. He said the dog’s instincts made a “big” difference in the high school student’s outcome.
Doctors said Axel’s instincts significantly improved Gabriel’s outcome, as there would have been a more serious injury if he had been found later.
By the time he arrived at the hospital, Gabriel had difficulty speaking and understanding words
The 17-year-old had senior photos taken the day before the stroke and went to bed feeling normal, except for the headache that subsided
His mother, 44-year-old Amanda Tanner, said she never thought about checking on the teen, an otherwise healthy football player.
“When someone has an acute stroke, the neurons die,” Effendi told TODAY.
“If he wasn’t found and another three or four hours passed, there would have been more and more brain damage.”
In retrospect, Gabriel said he had had no symptoms the night before other than a headache, which subsided. He played video games and went to sleep.
When he saw his father the next morning, Gabriel could not raise his right arm. He was not aware that he was slurring his words. And although he felt no pain, his vision was blurry.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. have a stroke every year. 15 percent of these strokes occur in people under the age of 40.
Up to 25 percent of strokes in young and middle-aged people are due to a dissection or tear in an artery that supplies blood to the brain.
Arteries have thick walls consisting of many layers. A layer can break off – sometimes spontaneously, as in Gabriel’s case – and reduce or completely block blood flow to the brain.
By the time Effendi saw him, Gabriel was having trouble speaking and understanding words. An X-ray showed he had a left-side stroke that caused weakness on the right side of his body.
The doctor suspected that Gabriel would need ongoing care even as he recovered. Since then, Gabriel has made “amazing” progress, Effendi said.
He has taken lessons from a homebound teacher and has received physical, occupational and speech therapy.
“I feel like I used to,” the teenager said.
Axel now has “the job of following Gabriel everywhere,” Tanner said.
“He sleeps with Gabriel more often now and Gabriel’s doors are open so he can come in and out. He has always been very sensitive to everything and everyone’s emotions at home.’
Tanner told Good Morning America, “I’m beyond grateful for the sensitivity that Axel has in telling us what’s going on and for moving so quickly.”
The border collie now watches over the high school student, sleeps in his room and follows him everywhere
The teen has made impressive progress, being taught by a homebound teacher and receiving multiple types of therapy
Days after her son’s stroke, Tanner wrote a Facebook post expressing her shock at the events that took place.
“Gabriel, at the age of 17, athletic and considered healthy, suffered an unexpected and unexplained stroke,” she wrote.
“Our whole life stopped for a moment and basically exploded. I saw these things in movies and testimonies, but never thought I would ever experience something like this. Nobody signs for this!
She added: “I often felt in these days that my life had ended because of what happened to Gabriel, but the joy that comes from this healing and the love and support that comes from those who know us or just met us having met through this struggle makes this journey a lot easier to make (sic).”
The teenager has gained a new outlook on life and no longer intends to dwell on the things that make him sad.
Tanner expressed her gratitude for Axel’s intuition.
“I am beyond grateful for the sensitivity that Axel has in telling us what is going on and that he did it so quickly,” she said.