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A retired builder told how he woke up with horror to find his pet puppy had chewed his toe ‘down to the bone’.
David Lindsay, 64, was startled by his wife’s screams as he slept on the sofa in their home, only to discover that his right big toe was covered in blood.
His toe bone was broken by his seven-month-old bulldog puppy Harley as he was sleeping and his toe nail was hanging out.
However, the horror turned out to be a potential life saver as medics later discovered that she had lost feeling in her legs due to two blocked arteries in her legs.
David, a father of five daughters and grandfather of 11, has no plans to get rid of the mischievous pup he inadvertently saved his life.
David, from Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, who suffers from diabetes, said: “I was sleeping on the sofa when my wife came in and shouted, ‘Dave, the puppy is chewing your toe!’
“My puppy almost chewed off my big toe! It chewed through to the bone and broke it.
“But through it all, I found that my leg was completely numb, I couldn’t feel anything.”
His wife bandaged his toe and took him to Addenbrooke’s Hospital where he has been for nine days.
Dave is put on intravenous antibiotics to prevent the dog bite infection from spreading to his bone.
(David Lindsay / SWNS)
But only having severely injured his toe, Dave finds that he can’t feel his foot.
During a CT scan for the fractured toe, doctors discovered not one, but two blocked arteries.
If the blood supply is not restored, the blockages could put her entire leg at risk of needing amputation.
Thanks to the mixed-colored pup, Dave is now being evaluated for a stent that will open up the arteries and allow blood flow to return to his leg.
He said he has no plans to get rid of the life-saving bulldog, as he lost two of his older Neapolitan mastiffs last year.
(David Lindsay / SWNS)
Dave, who hasn’t had a bulldog before now, said: “You have to laugh about it. He has done me a favor by chewing on my toe.
“So I’m waiting to find out if they can put in a stent. I’ll keep the dog.
“I’ll try to keep my toe too, but if not I asked the doctor to amputate it and I can take it home for him!”
David hopes to be home to his wife and Cheeky Bulldog by the end of the week.
