Dog Saves Life of Sleeping Boy With Type One Diabetes

When Luke Nuttall was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at two years old, his mother, Dorrie Nuttall, knew nothing about it.

“We don’t have a single member of our family [with diabetes]. I knew nothing about it. Nothing,” Nuttall told CBS News. “A lot of kids die almost at diagnosis. People don’t know the warning signs.”

That’s why Nuttal decided to get Jedi, a diabetic alert dog, trained to smell shifts in blood sugar. On one not-so-special night, she was sure glad she did because Jedi saved Luke’s life.

No alarms went off as it happened. Everyone was sound asleep. Luke was only a few inches away from Nuttall. Jedi, however, sensed something was wrong. Luke’s blood sugar was dropping alarmingly low. The dog jumped on the bed and sat on Nuttall until she woke up to check Luke’s blood sugar, which was at 57 mg/dl.

“Luke was laying right next to me, just inches from me, and without Jedi I would have had no idea that he was dropping out of a safe range,” she explained in a Facebook post that has now gone viral.

The scary part is that Luke’s CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) said he was “100 steady.” Nuttall told Jedi everything was fine, but the dog knew better.

“I told him to get up on the bed, he held his ground didn’t budge, he refused,” Nuttall said of Jedi. That’s when she knew he was serious and decided to prick Luke’s finger, which then revealed the super low reading.

Jedi is trained to bow when Luke’s blood sugar is low, and wave when it’s high. Jedi started training at just 11 weeks old to be the family’s alarm system.

“They love each other,” Nuttall told CBS News. “I can’t explain their connection; it’s very strong and very beautiful.”

Nuttall’s decision to share the incident on Facebook is important “because if we don’t share our stories how would anybody ever know that this is what my son and millions of others go through every single day?” she writes.

Nuttall’s hope is to bring awareness to type 1 diabetes, the warning signs – and no warning signs – that come along with it.

“…Jedi’s job goes beyond alerting,” said Nuttall according to CBS. “He also saves Luke from being alone, from being scared; he is his constant companion.”