{"id":14204,"date":"2023-10-30T11:31:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T15:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=14204"},"modified":"2023-10-30T11:31:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T15:31:41","slug":"a-teenager-was-having-a-stroke-but-his-dog-saved-him-according-to-his-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/10\/a-teenager-was-having-a-stroke-but-his-dog-saved-him-according-to-his-doctor.html","title":{"rendered":"A Teenager Was Having a Stroke, But His Dog Saved Him, According to His Doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"gabriel<\/a>
Amanda Tanner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daines and Amanda Tanner\u2019s dog jumped onto their bed a few months ago and pawed their bodies while they were trying to sleep. It was around 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday, the one day the couple hoped to sleep in each week. Amanda had never seen Axel, their 1-year-old border collie, so active that early. They guessed he needed to be let outside, so Daines walked him downstairs.<\/p>\n

However, when Daines opened the door to their backyard, Axel wouldn\u2019t go outside. Instead, he rushed toward Amanda\u2019s 17-year-old son\u2019s room downstairs and started clawing at the door. Inside, Gabriel Silva was already awake. Minutes earlier, he was walking in the living room when he lost his balance and fell. Gabriel didn\u2019t know why he was feeling poorly, so he returned to his room and got back in bed. Then, he heard Axel at his door and Daines downstairs.<\/p>\n

Gabriel followed Axel into the living room, where he started explaining his symptoms to Daines: he was struggling to walk, the right side of his body was numb, and his vision was magnified. However, Daines could barely understand Gabriel because his speech was slurred. Daines drove Gabriel to an emergency room, where doctors determined he was having a stroke. The \u201cToday\u201d show reported that Gabriel has since regained his ability to speak, walk and move his right arm. Sabih Effendi, a neurosurgeon who treated Gabriel, said he might have never recovered if Axel didn\u2019t wake up the family that morning.<\/p>\n

Effendi told The Washington Post, <\/em>\u201cWithout that early notification of him getting to the hospital, you really would have had really permanent deficits that would have made him really nonfunctional and unable to live life.\u201d Gabriel plays goalkeeper for his high school\u2019s soccer team and said there weren\u2019t any warning signs before the stroke. Before the incident, he went to school and soccer practice before dressing in a black bow tie and jacket for his senior year pictures. He had a headache, but it went away while he spent the night playing computer games.<\/p>\n