A family dog may have helped save the life of a 12-year-old girl who has Type 1 diabetes after it woke up her mother in the middle of the night when her daughter's blood-glucose level had dropped dangerously low.
Afreen Nagra was diagnosed with the chronic disease in 2013. Two weeks ago, Nagra was sleeping in her parents' bed when the family's 11-month-old Goldendoodle attempted to wake the girl's mother, who was sleeping beside her.
"(Simba) started licking my face and pulling up the comforter and I was like, 'What’s happening?'" Savira Randhawa told CTV Toronto.
Randhawa thought the dog had confused her for Nagra, so pushed it away. But the dog persisted and eventually Randhawa woke up. She saw her daughter was sweating profusely. Nagra was also not responding to her mother's request to have her blood-glucose level tested.
"I was sweating a lot but I just didn't wake up," Nagra recalled. "It was around 2 a.m. and then Simba went to my mom. He took the blanket and started pulling it off of her."
Randhawa gave her daughter some juice, before testing her blood-sugar level.
"It was 2.3 mmol/L. That's really low," Nagra said. "It’s really close to going into coma."
The Canadian Diabetes Association says a level of 4 mmol/L or less is consider low-blood glucose, or hypoglycemia.
Nagra saw her doctor the following day, who marveled at the dog's apparent ability to recognize danger.
"I think I was lucky that day," Randhawa said.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Pauline Chan
