That's when Toby, her 2-year-old golden retriever, woke from his nap to see what the ruckus was about. "He came running, and my first thought was, 'This isn't a good time to play,'" she recalls. As Freddy, her decidedly less exuberant basset hound, watched from the sidelines, Toby "jumped up and put his paws on my shoulder, pushed me down on my back and then jumped on my chest," says Parkhurst. "And the apple came up!"
Plenty of praise and lots of face licks followed, but so did a few questions. Could Toby really have performed the Heimlich maneuver? Turns out, whether he meant to or not, he did. The 75-lb. dog's pouncing on her chest "increased the pressure inside of her lungs to help push the piece of apple out of her trachea," says Parkhurst's internist Dr. Helen Wolfson. "He saved her life."
Which is fitting, since Parkhurst—who took Toby in after he was found in a dumpster when he was just 4 weeks old—may have saved his life as well. "He was just this little puff of fur who was way underweight," says Parkhurst, tearing up at the memory. And whether Toby was just playing or really did intend to return the favor, Parkhurst (who still has a bruise in the shape of a paw print on her chest) will be forever grateful. "I was choking," she says, "and Toby saved me."
- Contributors:
- Reported by Arnesa Howell/Cecil County.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
