Hero canine saves proprietor’s life after he collapses on seaside in show Lassie could be happy with
David Howarth, 71, collapsed on an empty Sandbanks beach in Poole, Dorset, following a sea swim with nobody around. But his faithful labrador Beau alerted strangers by bouncing up and down on David’s body, running around on the sand and barking loudly.
A widower who suffered a cardiac arrest on a beach was saved by his loyal pet dog. David Howarth, 71, collapsed on an empty Sandbanks beach in Poole, Dorset, following a sea swim with nobody around.
But in a display Lassie would be proud of, his faithful labrador Beau bounced up and down on David’s lifeless body, ran around on the sand and barked loudly. The five year old’s behaviour caught the eye of Claire Dashwood who was walking with her partner about 100 metres away.
Claire, 65, quickly realised something was wrong and ran to David who had stopped breathing. She and partner Paul Harrold got him onto his back and she started CPR while being guided by a paramedic over the phone. It comes after dogs’ sleeping positions show how furry friends really feel about their owners.
She said Beau licked her face during the ordeal as if to encourage her to keep going. Two off-duty doctors who were walking on the prom raced over to help and they and Claire took it in turns to carry on the CPR. Ambulance paramedics arrived and shocked David three times with a defibrillator.
Incredibly after 25 minutes. he started showing signs of life and was taken to hospital where he made a full recovery. David, who lost wife Jo to a brain tumour in 2018 and has two grown-up stepsons, is aware of how fortunate he is.
He said: “I feel I owe Beau my life. I feel like I’ve won the lottery. I have this feeling of euphoria. I feel extremely high-spirited, upbeat, optimistic and incredibly thankful for Beau and the people who went out of their way to save me.
“I call them my angels. Every day I feel like the bubble will burst but it’s a year on and it hasn’t. I’m just so glad to be alive, to be here, to have another chance.”
Claire, a healthcare assistant from Bournemouth, said she thought Beau was just playing on the beach at first and realised something was wrong when she saw David sprawled on his back.
She said: “He was dead, purple and freezing cold. I checked his pulse and his airway but there was nothing.”
She called 999 and sent Paul, 56, to look for a defibrillator. Claire said: “I was aware of lots of people around us saying, ‘he’s dead, he’s gone’, but I just blocked it all out and kept going. The dog could have growled at me or attacked me but he kept on licking me. He knew I was helping David.”
Doctors Rachel Hall and Chris Hovell, who both work at Bournemouth Hospital, helped with the CPR.
Rachel, 56, added: “When we were doing the compressions the paramedic told us over the phone to stop and check for a pulse, David didn’t have one so we just carried on for what felt like an eternity. I was genuinely astonished with the outcome because David was completely gone when we saw him on the beach.”
Doctors implanted a defibrillator near David’s heart and he was discharged after a week. Less than one in 10 people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, according to the British Heart Foundation.
Every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces the chance of surviving by up to 10 percent. Sam Kennard, community defibrillator manager at the charity, said: “This pawsome story reminds us how crucial it is to act fast in an emergency.
“Lives were saved because someone recognised the signs of cardiac arrest and started CPR immediately. Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time.”
Claire says she now carries a dog toy in her bag when she goes to the beach in case she bumps into David and Beau. She said: “Beau is my little hero. Every time I see him, he licks my face –and I never let a dog lick my face!”
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