The Labrador usually lets Hank sleep late—but not on this particular day. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
The service dog named Tommy had been with Hank Ford since he was a pup, and he knew his owner was at risk. He started nudging Hank with his nose, then pawing at him, and jumping on his body.
Get up. Get up. Get up.
Hank figured the dog needed to go outside a little earlier than normal. But when Hank stood up, he was light-headed and woozy, starting to sense that something was wrong too. He opened the door to let the dog outside, but Tommy didn’t budge.
54-year-old Hank kept feeling worse. He decided to check his vital signs with a blood pressure cuff and was startled by the results.
His pulse was a staggering 171 beats per minute.
The military veteran who had served for more than 20 years, called his local veterans hospital, but they thought his vital readings were obviously wrong, that he simply misused the machine.
Hank and Tommy both knew better, so the resident of Fort Lufton, Colorado, drove himself to the hospital, and the diagnosis arrived a few minutes later.
“They were freaking out about it,” Hank recalled, when doctors confirmed his vital signs. “It was good that Tommy woke me up.
“Something about the way he woke me up: He hasn’t done it before and he hasn’t done it since,” Hank told GNN. “Doctors said, more than likely, it would have been a stroke and it would have been a (big) one.”
What he was experiencing is AFib—an irregular heartbeat characterized by a rapid rhythm. The upper chambers of the heart beat out of sync with the lower chambers, and the condition can lead to reduced blood flow and cause strokes—or even death.
This recent event was not the only time Tommy helped save Hank’s life.
Years ago, Hank was in a self-described dark spot. He had spent decades of his selfless military service in high-stress situations, a hero in harm’s way. Desert Shield. Desert Storm. Bosnia. Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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Then, when he left the military, he worked for years at a federal penitentiary, adding even more layers of stress.
All those experiences and memories weren’t easily forgotten. Hank had a significant case of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). He didn’t like dealing with people or going out in public. He slept a lot and stayed at home, sheltering himself from the outside world.
His doctors encouraged him to pursue a service dog. And when his hunting dogs— also Labradors—passed away, Hank reached out to the Wounded Warrior Project for a service dog. That organization helped connect him with Dogs Inc, a nonprofit that provides guide dogs, service dogs, and therapy dogs, free of charge, to people in need.
Not long afterward, Hank and Tommy were united and the impact was immediate.
“We bonded fast,” Hank said. “I have had some good connections with dogs, but nothing like what we have…
“He would key the clues I was putting out really quickly. If you stress out, he will come out and look at you and put his chin on you and be like, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ It was a calming presence. And it was really quick. I was ready to have a dog again, but wasn’t expecting what I got.”
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Hank received a new best friend and a new path forward.
Life started looking a whole lot better. And when Hank’s heart was on the verge of a potentially-fatal malfunction and he was stabilized in the hospital, his wife brought the dog in to see him. Tommy crawled right up onto Hank’s bed and laid across his body.
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The dog stayed there for hours, just inches away from the beating heart of the man he had helped to heal years ago. So perhaps it’s no surprise that he was the crucial first responder and hero when Hank’s heart spun wildly out of rhythm.
“I knew dogs were man’s best friend for a reason,” Hank said. “He takes it above and beyond that.”
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