[nagdu] Pooch warns of seizures

Ginger Kutsch gingerKutsch at yahoo.com
Sun Feb 8 12:22:52 UTC 2009


Web-posted Sunday, February 8, 2009
Pooch warns of seizures
Dog helps child with epilepsy get to safe place
By Jon Mark Beilue
jon.beilue at amarillo.com
Stephen Spillman / Amarillo Globe-News
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/020809/new_12532895.shtml
Karon Silva, 6, with Boston, her 2-year-old golden retriever.
Boston has the ability to alert others to Karon's oncoming
seizures.
 
 
Stephen Spillman / Amarillo Globe-News
Karon Silva, 6, with Boston, her 2-year-old golden retriever.
Boston has the ability to alert others to Karon's oncoming
seizures.
 
 
Stephen Spillman / Amarillo Globe-News
Karon Silva, 6, with Boston, her 2-year-old golden retriever.
Boston has the ability to alert others to Karon's oncoming
seizures.
 
 
Stephen Spillman / Amarillo Globe-News
Karon Silva, 6, with Boston, her 2-year-old golden retriever.
Boston has the ability to alert others to Karon's oncoming
seizures.
 
 
Stephen Spillman / Amarillo Globe-News
Karon Silva, 6, with Boston, her 2-year-old golden retriever.
Boston has the ability to alert others to Karon's oncoming
seizures.
 
 
Stephen Spillman / Amarillo Globe-News
Karon Silva, 6, with Boston, her 2-year-old golden retriever.
Boston has the ability to alert others to Karon's oncoming
seizures.
 
      
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SHARE THIS STORY:   Boston knows when Karon Silva is in trouble.
Unlike others in the Silva family, he alone senses when the
6-year-old is about to go into an epileptic seizure.
"We know now with him at least 24 hours before Karon has a
seizure," said Elizabeth Silva, Karon's mother. "The only time
it's not 24 hours is when she was sick and changed medication,
and he knew maybe an hour or two before she had one.
 
"But Boston has been 100 percent accurate. He has not missed any
since we got him. I lost count back in August. He can detect
every one."
 
Boston is a dog. Not a doctor, but a 2½-year-old golden
retriever. Initially just an innocent birthday present two years
ago, Boston has become Karon's canine warning system, able to
sense and warn her mother or grandfather she will soon have an
epileptic seizure.
 

Certification fund
A fund has been set up in the name of Karon Silva at Amarillo
National Bank to help defray the $2,000 in costs for a trainer to
certify Boston, a golden retriever, a seizure-alert dog. About
half of the amount has been raised. 
If this sounds like some hokey 1950s episode of "Lassie," it goes
beyond a TV script. There are dogs, known as "seizure-alert"
dogs, that sense when a human is about to experience a seizure
either through scent or just an innate sense.
"There's no question there are dogs that pick that up," said Eric
Saunders, a Nevada dog trainer with 35 years experience. "It's
been well-documented. Some pick it up without training, but
training can certainly enhance that skill."
 
Saunders, a specialist in this field, hopes to be in Amarillo
this month to work with Boston for several days. That would
certify the dog to accompany Karon to Wolflin Elementary School,
to enter public facilities and be a constant health companion
like a guide dog aids the blind.
 
Money is an issue for Silva, a single mother with two children
who lives with her father, Rick Barclay. They have half the money
raised for Baron's certification. It would be a 24-hour lifeline
and a peace of mind.
 
"If we can have as much warning as Boston gives us to get Karon
somewhere safe and watch her and know something's not right, she
can actually live as a child," Silva said. "Instead, it's me
always on top of her and her not being able to do things other
girls can. Boston gives her a little bit of freedom and she gives
me the security that she's OK if I'm not always around, that he's
going to let us know."
 
Karon had her first seizures at 2 weeks old. She was diagnosed
with epilepsy because of her metabolism at age 3 at Texas
Children's Hospital in Houston. She can average a seizure every
two days, or can go as long as 13 weeks without them.
 
"But when they come back, they come back with a vengeance," said
Silva of the seizures that affect her daughter's memory and
recall.
 
Last Monday, Boston was able to warn the family in the hours
before Karon had two grand mal seizures that required stays at
Northwest Texas Hospital.
 
The family had Boston for all of four days in December 2007 when
he saw Karon's first major seizure.
 
"He lost it," Silva said. "He was barking, growling, running back
and forth. When it was over, we went into her room and Boston was
lying down beside her."
 
That was after the seizure. Since then, Boston's behavior changes
around Karon have been uncanny in predicting a seizure. He will
become clingy to her and will not leave her side. That's the
first tip that a seizure could occur within hours.
 
"If it's night and Karon wakes up and is about to have a seizure,
he will pace back and forth between her room and to me and my
dad," she said. "I mean it's obvious."
 
And the closer that Karon seems to be to a seizure, the more
animated Boston can get.
 
"He'll turn and stare at you, and paw her like something is not
right," Silva said. "If the seizure is closer, he'll pace around
faster and faster. He literally will not eat or drink until after
she's had one. After that, he will eat and go to the bathroom,
and everything is all right."
 
Silva is hopeful she can reach a financial arrangement with
Saunders, who operates Goldstar Dog Training in Pahrump, Nev. His
additional training in sensory technique as well as obedience
would allow Boston to be with Karon not only at home, but
throughout the day.
 
"He could warn anyone when something is not right, not just us,"
Silva said. "Boston is an amazing dog."
 

 
 


Ginger Bennett Kutsch
Morristown, NJ


 



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