A family Doberman helped save a baby: her behaviour led to a heart-condition diagnosis

What happened

Kim Reynolds, 41, from Somerset in England, noticed her Doberman Saraya staying by her six-month-old son Alexander and crying whenever he was taken away. When he later became upset and looked unwell, she took him to hospital, where doctors recorded a heart rate of 280 beats per minute.

The outcome

After two days, Alexander was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a heart rhythm condition that can be managed but is dangerous if left untreated. Three doses of medicine brought his heart rate down. At nine months, he takes propranolol three times a day. Saraya later alerted Kim again, and he was found to have bacterial tonsillitis, treated with penicillin.