A nine-year-old pet staffy has been credited with saving his young owner’s life, after discovering the two-year-old child floating face-down in a dam.
Little Alexander Kenney was visiting friends with his father, David, when the incident occurred a fortnight ago. The family friends have a dam at the back of their home in Nana Glen, near Coffs Harbour, and it is believed that the child fell in.
Coffs Coast Advocate reports that pet dog Leala spotted little Alexander in the dam, and ran into the water to try and rescue him. When she couldn’t, Leala ran back to the house and began barking frantically in a bid to catch dad David’s attention.
Mr Kenny and his friends followed Leala to the dam where Alexander lay unconscious, and they performed CPR on the tot for the 27 minutes it took for paramedics to arrive.
Alexander was then airlifted to Brisbane’s Lady Cilento Hospital and placed in an induced coma for 36 hours. Much to doctors’ delight and surprise, within 48 hours the little boy began making a speedy recovery and was breathing on his own again.
In a Facebook post, a relieved mum Lisa said that doctors put Alexander’s recovery down to his dad’s CPR and Leala’s heroics.
“Without Leala, we wouldn’t have our little boy with us today. Scotch fillets forever, sweetheart,” she wrote.
