Happened across some great stories this morning, browsing the internet during breakfast:
Florida woman suffering a stroke said she needed ‘help’, her dogs ran and got it
“I said, ‘Mommy needs help,’ and then they were gone,” the woman said.
A Florida woman is crediting her two Labradors for saving her life after she suffered a stroke in December.
Maureen Hatcher’s dogs, Sadie and Bella, were caught on video running for help after she fell down in her St Augustine home alone, according to NBC-affiliate station WTLV .
The dogs can been seen in footage from Hatcher’s front-door camera running out of the house just moments before a neighbor comes over, finds her and calls 911.
Sometimes dogs amaze even me. I also heard of a case where a dog, also a Lab, woke the family up during a house fire. One of the children was too dazed and confused to leave the house, and the parents were so distracted by rounding up the other children they didn’t immediately realize this girl was missing. The Lab went and got her, took her by the wrist, led her to the door, stood on his hind legs to hit the door knob, and took her outside.
That was supposed to be a true story. I think it’s plausible.
Don’t want Labs to get all the credit, so here’s another nice story about a Pit Bull.
Don’t want dogs to get all the credit, so here’s something nice that went the other way: Marathon competitor runs 19 miles carrying a PUPPY after finding it in the road during her race
Khemjira Klongsanun, 43, noticed the other athletes dodging the dog seven miles into the 26-mile marathon in Ratchaburi, western Thailand.
She slowed down to kneel by the roadside and gently coax the trembling little Thai bangkaew breed dog over to her.
Thumbs down for all the athletes who bypassed the puppy, thumbs up for Klongsanun. Good for her, and she’s apparently adopting the puppy herself. Many heartwarming pictures at the link.
I suppose I shouldn’t focus solely on dogs here, and besides, this is the other really nice headline I noticed this morning. So for a completely different type of good news:
Novel Phage Therapy Saves Patient with Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Infection
“When it became clear that every antibiotic had failed, that Tom could die, we sought an emergency investigational new drug application from the FDA to try bacteriophages,” ….
“To our knowledge, he is the first patient in the United States with an overwhelming, systemic infection to be treated with this approach using intravenous bacteriophages. From being in a coma near death, he’s recovered well enough to go back to work. Of course, this is just one patient, one case. We don’t yet fully understand the potential — and limitations — of clinical bacteriophage therapy, but it’s an unprecedented and remarkable story, and given the global health threat of multidrug-resistant organisms, one that we should pursue.”
Resistant bacteria have been a real concern for some time, as I’m sure you’re aware. Imagine a world where a parent has to risk dire infection if they choose to repair their child’s hare lip — that’s the kind of thing that could happen if every surgery carries the risk of terrible infections. I’ve had faith that we’d come up with something clever to avoid that problem. This is certainly looking promising.
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