Warmth of the family dog saves a toddler's life

By Jeff Lehr
 PIERCE CITY, Mo. — The night Kalina and Jeremy Fortin began weaning their 2-year-old son from sleeping with them, he proved way too footloose.



Sometime early Sunday morning, Jan. 10, Brody apparently got up and wandered out of the Fortin home in rural Pierce City, Mo. The temperature was just below zero, and Brody was dressed in little more than the long-sleeved pajama top, sweatpants and socks he wore when he went to bed.



If not for the family dog, a German shepherd named Lobo, the consequences may have been tragic.



Kalina awoke shortly before 8 a.m. and noticed Brody missing. He somehow slipped out the back door.



She searched frantically, making her way to the front of the house. She found him lying on the porch, with Lobo draped across his body.



Brody's lips were blue. He clearly suffered hypothermia.



It was a parent’s worst nightmare.



“That devastating feeling has not really left me yet,” Kalina said recently. “He was so cold.”



The boy may have been outside for an hour and a half, although no one is certain.



Kalina thought for a moment that her son might be dead. She picked him up, carried him into the house and plopped down next to a source of heat in the kitchen. She hugged him close, she said.



It wasn’t until she heard him exhale that she knew he was still alive.



Kalina was calling for Jeremy, who awoke confused and not at first grasping what had happened.



They called 911 but decided they couldn’t wait for an ambulance. Kalina wrapped Brody in a robe and a heating blanket. The couple climbed into their truck and sped off for the hospital in Monett, about eight miles away.



The child’s condition was critical enough that doctors and nurses decided to send him by helicopter to a pediatric intensive care unit in Springfield, Mo. He stayed there until the next day. He was in the hospital for four days.



Brody suffered frostbite on his hands and knees, but his mother said doctors could not tell how severe it was until the third or fourth day. He has since made a full recovery, without the need for surgery or skin grafts.



Kalina speculated her son was "letting Lobo out to potty.”



“He didn’t know it would be that cold," she said.



Brody had pulled on his cowboy boots and a little hat - not nearly enough to protect him from the cold.



Fortunately the dog seemed to sense this and curled up beside the boy.



Lobo's warmth, doctors and nurses have told the family, probably saved the boy's life.



Jeff Lehr writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe. He can be reached at jlehr@joplinglobe.com.