Jerry Douthett of Michigan had passed out from a night of drinking beer and margaritas and woke up to see his Jack Russel terrier, Kiko, standing in a pool of blood. Then Douthett started yelling for his wife, Rosee a registered nurse.
His wife responded to her husband’s frantic yells, “My toe’s gone, my toe’s gone!” she told the Grand Rapids Press. Kiko had chewed off Douthett’s right toe, which was hiding an undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes infection.
Rosee, who lost her brother to complications from diabetes, rushed her husband to Spectrum Health Blodgett Campus where doctors amputated the rest of the toe that had succumbed to the festering infection.
“It smelled and I look back now and realize every time we’d visit someone with a dog their dog would be sniffing all over my foot,” said Douthett who credits one-year-old Kiko with saving his life. When admitted to the hospital for the wound, Douthett’s blood-sugar level was 560, about five times the recommended 80-120 ranges.
The 48-year-old musician had refused treatment against his wife’s wishes until last month. He now says, “If it hadn’t been for that dog, I could have ended up dead.”
