
Service dog sniffs low glucose level and alerts sleeping boy's mother.
Jedi is a black Labrador that has been trained for the last three years to detect faint scents emitted by diabetic patients whose sugar levels have dropped too low, and that training paid off for Dorrie Nuttal’s son, Luke, when the dog woke Luke’s mother up to let her know his levels had dropped to an unsafe range.
Ms. Nuttal posted the story, along with a photo of Jedi, on Facebook and has had over 330,000 likes since the March 3 posting, according to an article on Fox News. She wrote, “This is a picture of Jedi saving his boy. Saving him from highs and lows and from ever feeling alone.”
Just minutes earlier, Jedi had been jumping on and off the bed where Luke was sleeping, and began to lay on Ms. Nuttal until she was awakened. Jedi then began to bow his head, which is the way he was trained to respond to sniffing scents that alerted him that Luke’s glucose had dropped to unsafe levels.
Luke’s mother immediately checked her son’s glucose monitor and it gave her a reading of 100, considered normal, but still Jedi refused to stop giving her the signal. Ms. Nuttal decided to take a reading by pricking her son’s finger and that resulted in a reading of 57, far too low for the boy, who was recovering from a stomach bug.
Ms. Nuttal immediately gave her son a glucose tablet to raise his blood sugar, possibly saving the boy’s life. That’s when she decided to post the photo on Facebook to share her story and let others know what she and million of others go through with loved ones facing the disease.
She added on Facebook, “We need awareness about a disease that most of the world doesn’t understand, we need to help show the world why we so desperately need a cure.”
Fewer than five percent of people with diabetes have Type 1, which prevents individuals from producing insulin in their bodies, according to the American Diabetes Association. Insulin is a hormone that allows the body to transport glucose from the bloodstream to the body’s cells.
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