Dog saves young woman having stroke

Thanks to a family dog, a young woman from Peachtree City is recovering in the hospital after having stroke.

Doctors said that Alyssa Lemay will be fine, and a lot has to do with her dog.

“I’m so thankful for him. I don't know what i would have done without him. I would have laid there for hours,” said Lemay.

Alyssa said that she will never forget what her 3-year-old boxer-lab mix did for her over the weekend. Her actions are the reason she believe she is not paralyzed. The 23-year-old woman was home in Peachtree City Sunday night when the unthinkable happened. She had an acute stroke trying to get a drink from the refrigerator.

“I got the drink out of the fridge and put it on the kitchen counter. I dropped the lid. I picked up the lid. I dropped it again. Dropped it. Dropped it again,” said Lemay. “Finally, I dropped it one last time. When I went to pick it up that time, I fell down on the ground and was unable to get back up no matter how I tried to use the wall, the countertops. I fell twice and hit my head against the cabinet doors.”

While on the kitchen door, Alyssa said that her dog, Bentley, went to Marsha, her mother, who was visiting, and who is deaf, and got her.

“He started crying with me, and then told me based on my facial structure i probably had a stroke.

Alyssa said that she thought she would be fine and needed to get to the couch. She realized it could have been more serious. She has been in Atlanta Medical Center ever since.

“The fact that her dog was able to alert her mom right away, the fact that the paramedic decided to bypass two other hospitals to get her to a comprehensive stroke center that offers cutting edge treatment,” said Dr. Sakib Quershi, Atlanta Medical Center.

“You kind of feel invincible at this age and strokes are not something that could happen any day to you. And this happened out of the blue,” said Lemay.

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