Marine and US Army veteran’s service dog saves his life from a medical emergency by waking him up before he had a stroke

Hank Ford, a former U.S. Army and Marine, suffers from PTSD and spends a lot of time alone.

“Used to be, I walk into a place and I’m looking for exits. I’m watching everybody. I’m just not trusting anything that’s going on and with him, I’m just all that seems to have gone away,” says Ford, who is grateful for the service dog he received two years ago from a nonprofit called Dogs, Inc.

Tommy, his yellow Labrador, wakes him up every day around 7 a.m. But one morning in February, the now 3-year-old woke him up unusually early and almost seemed to be trying to tell him exactly why.

Ford was asleep when Tommy began barking – something he rarely does. The dog climbed on him, pawed at him and pushed insistently with his nose.

“He was hitting me in the chest. He wasn’t coming up to my face. He was, he was literally hitting me in the chest,” Ford said.

When Ford got up, he realized something was off.

He then drove himself to the hospital, only to find out he was in what’s called “A-fib,” with an irregular, rapid heartbeat.

As the doctor put it, if Tommy had not start barking and pulling on him as he did, he would probably not have woken up and would have had a massive stroke in his sleep.

Hank stayed overnight at the hospital that day and was administered shock treatment.

Nine months later, after undergoing cardiac ablation and going on medication, Hank says he is feeling way better now.

In addition to providing service dogs to veterans, Dog, Inc. also provides guide dogs to people with visual impairments, and starting in 2026, will provide dogs that can detect changes in blood sugar for people with type 1 diabetes.