Dog News

Nurses Care for Heart Attack Victim’s Dog

by Melanie

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Carl Massey with nurses Amy Edmund and Allen Denham.
Carl Massey with nurses Amy Edmund and Allen Denham.

 

Two South Carolina nurses did more than just care for a patient recovering from a heart attack at their hospital – they also went to the truck stop he had been at to pick up his dog, and one of the nurses brought her home for the next several days.

Truck driver Carl Massey and his miniature Dachshund, Sweetie, were traveling from Ohio to South Carolina and were at a Florence, SC truck stop when the man began experiencing severe chest pains.

“Me and my little dog Sweetie, we were, sitting there watching television and went to bed and started to lay down and…I couldn’t breathe,” Massey said

The chest pain grew so bad that paramedics convinced him to go to the hospital by ambulance. Little Sweetie had to stay behind.

Massey was taken to McLeod Hospital, where two of his nurses showed him the meaning of southern hospitality. Allen Denham found out that Sweetie was all alone at the truck stop, and went to pick her up.

11.14.13 - Nurses Care for Patient's Dog2

“He showed me where the keys to his truck were at and I went and got the dog out of the truck and I wanted to assure him that we would take care of him here and we would see to it that the dog was taken care of,” he said.

While Massey underwent a quintuple bypass, nurses worked to find Sweetie a place to stay. Amy Edmund volunteered to give her a temporary home.

“He permanently has a babysitter, if he ever comes traveling through Florence again, we’d be more than happy to keep Sweetie for him,” she said.

The nurses also alerted Massey’s family to the situation, who flew in to pick up Sweetie. Massey is expected to be released from the hospital and fly home on Friday.

“They got a hold of my family, kept them in good contact until they got here. You know, I just can’t say enough about this place,” he said.

 

 

 

 

WBTW-TV: News, Weather, and Sports for Florence, SC