Dog Saved Owner With 'Heimlich'
Scott Goss and Cecil Whig
If it’s true that every dog has his day, then Tuesday definitely belonged to Toby, the Heimlich dog.
Owner Debbie Parkhurst said she received dozens of interview requests from media outlets all over the nation Tuesday — the day after the Cecil Whig broke the story of the 2-year-old golden retriever that saved her life Friday by performing the Heimlich maneuver on her.
By midafternoon Tuesday, Parkhurst had fielded calls from such television programs as “Good Morning America,” the “Late Show with David Letterman,” numerous Balti-more and Washington, D.C.-based news programs and other media outlets including CBS radio in Los Angeles, the BBC and even a Swedish newspaper.
“It’s just been incredible,” Parkhurst said of all the attention her otherwise rambunctious pet is receiving. “Toby has no idea about all the attention he’s been getting today.”
Parkhurst first told her story to the Cecil Whig on Monday.
The 45-year-old Calvert-area jewelry maker said she was home alone with her two dogs on Friday when a small piece of an apple she was eating became lodged in her windpipe.
After a failed attempt at performing the Heimlich on herself, Parkhurst began beating her chest, which in turn attracted the attention of Toby, a dog she and her husband rescued from a trash bin in 2005.
Toby, who may or may not have known what he was doing, stood on his hind legs and gently pulled Parkhurst to the floor, she said.
The dog then performed a version of the Heimlich by jumping up and down on Parkhurst’s chest, a move that successfully dislodged the apple from her windpipe.
“As soon as I started breathing, he stopped and began licking my face, as if to keep me from passing out,” she said.
Whether Toby’s actions were the result of playful dog with good timing or some kind of canine miracle may be a matter for debate, but Parkhurst believes her dog knew exactly what it was doing.
“It’s not the kind of story you hear every day,” said Mike Buczkiewicz, a talent coordinator with the “Late Show.”
Veterinarian Doug Foreman of the Cherry Hill Animal Hospital, who’s been Toby’s doctor for years, said he’s never heard any story of a dog performing the Heimlich in the 22 years he’s been in practice.
“How he knew what to do I’ll never know,” Foreman said. “I really feel like it might have been some kind of miracle, because Toby isn’t what you would call the most-trained of dogs. In fact, he’s about the last dog I would expect to do something like this.”
Incredibly, just a year ago, Toby almost lost one of his legs, Foreman said.
“Mrs. Parkhurst brought him in last year because he had a terrible limp,” he said. “We feared it was cancer and I honestly thought we might have to take the leg.”
Foreman said was relieved to discover, after several biopsies, that Toby was instead suffering from a severe infection.
“Toby’s actions are even more coincidental given his history,” Foreman said. “It’s almost as if this may have been the hand of God.”
Parkhurst said she and her husband are considering whether to accept an invitation to the “Late Show” tonight followed by “Good Morning America” on Thursday.
“It’s all so overwhelming,” she said. “I’m very shy, but I’m so proud of Toby, we just might do it.”
http://www.cecilwhig.com/articles/2007/03/28/news/01.txt