How a 'hero' dog's bark saved her owner's life

A four-year-old golden retriever from County Fermanagh will be honoured as a "CPR hero" in London on Tuesday.

Polly's owners Adam and Hannah Cooke, from Ballinamallard, are convinced she helped save Adam's life after he suffered a cardiac arrest in his sleep last year.

A bark from Polly raised the alarm and woke Hannah who found Adam breathing strangely, before he stopped breathing completely.

She then performed CPR until an ambulance arrived, saving his life.

Hannah, who works in social services, said it had been a "normal night" before she was woken up by Polly barking just before 01:00 GMT.

The 33-year-old said initially thought Adam had been choking but he then stopped breathing.

"I used to be a carer and I've been with people at the end of their life so I know what that end of life breathing was like," she said.

"If anyone has heard it, you'll never hear anything like it."

Hannah added: "But he was also really, really fighting to come back. But I did think that was it, that he was never going to come back."

Paramedics shocked Adam with a defibrillator seven times on the journey from his home to hospital.

He woke up in hospital six days later.

A keen runner, Adam was just 37 years old at the time of his cardiac arrest.

He was later diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and was fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) – a device that can deliver an electrical shock to correct heart rhythms.

After weeks of recovery in hospital, Adam and Polly were reunited.

An 'emotional' reunion

"Polly is a part of the family, so I just wasn't shocked when I heard she had such a big role to play," he said.

"I'm not going to shy away from it, I cried, I was in tears, I think she was too.

"She was whimpering because I think she was thinking, 'Wow, you're back home. I didn't think you'd be back here'.

"It was an emotional moment".

Hannah said: "With a cardiac arrest, everything I've learned since, it all happens in seconds, and Polly gave me those seconds.

"Polly is so in tune with Adam. After she barked, she was silent. I would say Polly knew before it was even happening. I would say Adam had just started the arrest as she barked.

"I love her to bits. She's the best dog in the world. Neither of us did anything special, but we did it together."

Adam nominated his wife, and his dog, in the annual Heart Hero awards, organised by the British Heart Foundation.

Polly wasn't able to travel to London for the event, and had her CPR medal presented to her at her favourite walking spot.

Fearghal McKinney from the British Heart Foundation said he hoped the Cooke's story would encourage other people to learn CPR.

"In the UK every year there are 40,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests - fewer than one in ten will survive," he said.

"For every minute that passes after a cardiac arrest the chances of survival decrease by up to 10 per cent, that's a vital window, so more people having confidence to intervene will save lives."

Adam said he owes his life to his wife and his dog.

"They are heroes. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them."

Dog behaviourist and trainer, Louise Glazebrook, said said dog owners can underestimate what their pets are capable of.

"Dogs are constantly picking up signals from us that we as humans either don't understand or we don't see them do it.

"Dogs have something like 220 million scent receptors and we have around five million which is why we are breeding and creating programmes for dogs to do incredible things in disease detection.

"But obviously this is incredible that Polly managed to save a life and change the trajectory of that life forever."

So how is Polly handling all the attention?

"She loves attention, she always has since day one," Adam said.

"In her mind she's number one. Even though we have a son, and another child on the way."

Hannah added that Polly rules the house.