Dog saves girl from choking (From Worcester News)

Dog saves girl from choking

7:10pm Sunday 27th September 2009

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By Lucy Tatchell »

A HERO dog has once again come to the rescue of her Worcester owner.

Hearing dog Lye is trained to be the ears for her deaf handler Nicola Willis.

This week the six-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel woke Miss Willis when her 15-year-old daughter started choking downstairs.

“She is such a little hero,” said 40-year-old Miss Willis.

“My daughter was blue when I got downstairs, without Lye I don’t know what would have happened.” The incident occured at 11.30pm on Thursday when teenager Josie-Ann started choking after taking a sip of water.

Her mum, who was born completely deaf, had taken out her hearing aids and could not hear the commotion downstairs.

Lye was sleeping in Miss Willis’s room and ran downstairs when she heard Josie-Ann struggling. The home-schooled teenager signalled for the dog to fetch her mum so Lye ran back upstairs and woke Miss Willis.

“I knew something was wrong but I was not expecting to find my daughter blue,” she said.

“It was awful. I grabbed my phone and rang for an ambulance.

“I hit her on the back and it did not do any good. I told her to put her fingers down her throat and that was enough to get the gagging reflex going. It was all so horrible.” A spokesman for the ambulance service said a paramedic was on the scene within five minutes and treated the teenager, but she did not have to go to hospital.

As previously reported in your Worcester News, hearing dog Lye alerted Miss Willis to intruders in her house and ran for help when she collapsed in a Worcester alleyway.

For her efforts, Lye was named hearing dog of the month last year and came runner up in the hearing dog of the year competition.

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