A diabetes-sniffing dog is getting accolades after alerting his owner to her seven-year-old son’s low blood sugar in what could have been a dangerous episode.
Dorrie Nuttal and her son Luke, who has Type 1 diabetes, were fast asleep on March 3 when Luke’s diabetes alert dog Jedi sniffed something amiss.
Jedi, who is specially trained to sniff out changes in Luke’s blood glucose levels, hopped up on the bed to wake Nuttal. When she didn’t stir immediately, the dog hopped back up on the bed and lay on top of her until she woke up.
When he finally had her attention, the dog bowed -- the special signal for a glucose low.
Confused, Nuttal checked Luke’s glucose monitor, which said he was steady at a reading of 100.
But Jedi was adamant, so Nuttal pricked Luke’s finger to get a more accurate reading and found that his actual level was 57, well below the safe threshold of 70. She quickly gave Luke a glucose tab to raise his blood sugar and snapped a photo of the scene as she waited for Luke’s levels to go up.
She then posted the picture along with her account of the events on Facebook.
“This is a picture of a Jedi saving his boy,” Nuttal wrote. “Amidst a disease that does everything in its power to make life so much harder, this is a picture of loyalty and love and perseverance. A reminder that we will not let diabetes win, that we will never give up, and that we will always fight for our children.”
The mom, who blogs about her son’s disease, also took the opportunity to share more about how diabetes affects Luke and their family.
“Luke was laying right next to me, just inches from me, and without Jedi I would have had no idea that he was dropping out of a safe range. He has never woken up on his own for a low in over 4 and a half years. We are his safety net, he goes to bed every night, and although he doesn't know it he relies 100% on us to keep him safe overnight,” she wrote.
The image quickly went viral and major media outlets started phoning to learn more about Luke and Jedi.
According to Nuttal’s blog, Luke was just two years old when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, an auto-immune disease where his pancreas does not produce insulin.
The disease requires his blood sugar to be monitored 10 to 15 times through the day and every two to three hours overnight.
According to Nuttal, her son has been pricked over 4,000 times, has had over 1,500 shots and has endured catheter insertions and countless bouts of sickness from having blood sugar levels that are too high or too low.
He is also hypoglycemic unaware, which means he cannot sense naturally when his blood sugar is too high or too low. If his sugar drops too low in his sleep, he could slip into a coma and die.
That’s why the family got Jedi. While Luke’s blood is tested frequently, Jedi is able to sense spikes and drops in his blood sugar almost instantly with his highly sensitive nose.
Nuttal said that while her family lives with the disease constantly, she hopes the experience gives people a sense of why more research is needed to find a cure.
“Most people don't know that we often see multiple lows and highs every single day no matter how hard we work or how diligent we are, it's not easy trying to be a pancreas,” she said.
“That Luke's had thousands of shots and finger pricks that started when he was just 2 and will never stop unless there is a cure. 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.”
