A Canadian military veteran has revealed the incredible way his cub Bear saved his life after he suffered a massive heart attack.
Darren Cropper, 57, said he should have died in August 2022 when he suffered the medical emergency, but Bear sprang into action and jumped on his chest for hours until he was discovered.
The Siberian husky jumped for so long that paw prints were left on Cropper’s chest, the report said. National Post Office.
Paramedics later told the father, a retired Special Forces weapons specialist, that the only thing that saved him from death was Bear’s heroism.
Darren Cropper, 57, revealed his beloved cub Bear saved his life by jumping up and down on his chest for hours after he suffered a heart attack.
Bear, a Siberian husky who was a year old at the time, jumped for so long that paw prints were left on Cropper’s chest.
Cropper said his near-death experience occurred in late summer, when he woke up in the middle of the night feeling unwell.
He said he decided to go downstairs to watch TV instead of going back to bed because “once I’m up, I’m up.”
But after entering his basement, Cropper said everything went black and the next thing he knew, his 1-year-old dog was jumping on his chest.
Bear continued to howl and scream, drawing the attention of Darren’s wife Janice, 59, and son Matthew, 29.
They discovered Cropper lying on the ground and called 911 to rush him to the hospital.
He was first flown from his home in Bonfield, Ontario, to the North Bay Regional Health Centre, before being transferred to the cardiac unit of a larger hospital as he needed open-heart surgery.
Doctors discovered that Darren’s heart attack was caused by the closure of the arteries running from his right lung to his heart.
Cropper was found by his wife Janice, 59 (pictured together) and son Matthew after Bear’s howls for help led them to him.
Cropper said Bear is now known as ‘Care Bear’ or ‘Hero Puppy’ for his life-saving efforts.
Cropper is a retired Canadian Army Special Forces weapons specialist.
Recalling that incredible accident, Cropper told the National Post: “If Bear hadn’t jumped on my chest, I wouldn’t be alive.
He basically gave me puppy CPR and got the blood flowing. No one taught him that, but his parents were service dogs. I guess it’s something he has inside him, his instinct.
While recovering in hospital, Cropper said she was unable to see her saviour pet due to the Covid-19 pandemic and could only communicate via video calls.
But he said that despite the distance, his beloved dog still recognised him, as “he saw me on the video and went crazy!”
Bear’s life-saving efforts have earned him a place in the Purina Hall of Fame, along with other canines who rescued their owners against all odds.
“My wife calls him our care bear. I call him my hero pup,” Cropper concluded.
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