Posted on 02/21/2020 9:30:23 AM PST by nickcarraway
A Gladwin County man says he wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for his dog.
Ken Richter, 52, was sound asleep, but his dog was able to wake him up while he was suffering a heart attack. He's calling Cheyenne, a 6-year-old pit bull-Labrador mix, his hero.
"A lot of people don't like pit bulls. They are the most friendly, awesome family dog if they are trained right," Richter said.
It might have been training or perhaps the dog's instincts, but they're inseparable bond grew even stronger on Jan. 20. Richter was sound asleep around 2:30 a.m. when Cheyenne did something she had never done before.
"She just body slammed me," he said. "She never did anything like that. She just stood up and slammed right into my back and I have had surgery, so she knows not to mess with my back."
At first, he was upset that the 85-pound dog gave him the unexpected wake up call.
"I yelled at her, because I didn't know what she was doing, so she took off out of my bedroom and I woke up my chest was hurting so bad I could barely breathe," he said.
Richter said the pain wouldn't go away, so he eventually drove himself to the hospital in Gladwin.
"Within like 10 to 15 minutes, they come and said the ambulance was coming in to transport me to Midland already," he said. "No sooner than I got to Midland at 10:30 in the morning they put a stent in me."
Richter was having a heart attack when Cheyenne awoke him.
"They said it was a bad one. I had like 99 percent blockage in my left ventricle," he said.
Richter's doctor told him the dog most likely saved his life.
"You were probably in the middle of the heart attack when the dog did it," he said.
Richter has two children and another dog, Chunky-Monkey. He will turn 53 next month, a birthday he will celebrate thanks to Cheyenne.
"I don't think I would be here, my son, I have no idea where he would be now, because at the time I don't have a living will, but I have to get one going now," Richter said.
Try and get a cat to do that.
A heart attack while in a deep sleep sounds like a perfectly lovely way to go. I think I better start shutting my dog out of the bedroom.
>>>Try and get a cat to do that.<<<
A cat will size up the situation and say, “Looks like meat is on the menu for tonight!”
Well the dog left him right after waking him up - didn’t even hang around to perform CPR!
meh- i always wake up when like my stomach hurts while sleeping- i would think a heart attack would wake me up too- I wouldn’t wanna miss all the fun by sleeping through it I guess
But that doesn't change the reality that the pure breds were selectively bred for centuries to develop very specific instincts. You can't stop Pointers and Setters from pointing game birds, or Retrievers for chasing after something you toss, and all the other instinctive traits bred into the various breeds.
And the Pit Bulls were bred to fight. It's no accident that they lead the list of dogs attacking humans, and exceptions don't change the rule.
<iframe width="952" height="580" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WdKBH8_1GH8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Dog probably went to find a phone to call 9-1-1.
uggh- don’t know how to post video here: so here’s the youtubel ink:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=63&v=WdKBH8_1GH8&feature=emb_logo
Waiting for all the Pit Bull haters to descend upon this thread. Oh wait....
I guess that some heart attacks are silent. You feel nothing . . .
They have already arrived, some folks love to hate. and wallow in perpetuating hate.Its the haters that make it acceptable for the monsters among us to torture, abuse, fight these dogs. We are on our second generation of Pit/Mixes and besides being great family dog, they have had a strong sense of what is right and wrong.
true- i had ulcers awhile back and wow- they can feel just like heart attacks- hurting right down the arm- across the chest- up into neck- Sweating- shaking- but after awhile i carried tums with me, and if i got that happening, i would pop two tums and the pain would subside- easing the mind about it not being a heart attack-
Acknowledging reality is not hating, but ignoring reality is pretty dumb.
I won’t waste my time linking the numerous sites which show that Pit Bulls bite and at times kill humans more than any other breed.
It was the Lab half that woke him up.
“A heart attack while in a deep sleep sounds like a perfectly lovely way to go. “
As someone who lived through cardiac arrest I would tend to agree with you.
“I guess that some heart attacks are silent. You feel nothing . . .”
I think you’re right but mine was not one of those. It flat out hurt like a son a bitch. At least right before I died.
And now we have patrick stewart fighting to get the uk ban on pit bulls removed.
Its sad the more you know about the talking props, the less you like them.
Maybe an 85-lb dog slamming into his back is what GAVE him the heart attack. Or maybe he got the heart attack as he was screaming at his dog for having just done what it did.
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