By Duarte Dias | November 25, 2025
A four-year-old golden retriever named Polly is being hailed as a lifesaver after alerting her owners when one of them suffered a nighttime cardiac arrest.
Hannah Cooke, 33, of County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, said Polly’s bark woke her and led her to discover that her husband, Adam, had stopped breathing. Hannah — who previously worked as a carer and recognized the sound people sometimes make at the end of life — immediately called emergency services and began CPR until paramedics arrived, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) reported.
Paramedics gave Adam seven shocks from a defibrillator on the way to the hospital, and his heart rate was eventually restored. He woke six days later and was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that weakens the heart’s pumping ability. After weeks of treatment and the insertion of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), Adam was able to return home and reunite with Polly.
“When I got out of hospital, I’ll never forget seeing Polly again and knowing how she had intervened that night. I just cuddled her and cried for 20 minutes,” Adam said.
Hannah and Adam credit Polly with triggering the response that made immediate CPR possible. “Polly alerted me, possibly within seconds of Adam’s cardiac arrest, she was the first responder,” Hannah told the BHF. “Because of her, I was able to start CPR almost immediately.”
The couple and their dog were set to be honored as “CPR Heroes” at the British Heart Foundation’s Heart Hero Awards in London. The BHF works to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease and funds research into treatments and cures.
Polly’s alertness highlights how pets can sometimes notice sudden changes in their owners and, in this case, helped set in motion a chain of actions that likely saved a life.