Labrador alerts wife that husband has a stroke

There’s a special bond between Albert Lean Larry Lee and his dog, Dee.

If it weren’t for Dee last fall, no one would have known as quickly that Larry suffered from a stroke near the back of their property, and Larry would likely not be where he is today.

On Oct. 17, Larry, who is retired from the Freeborn County Highway Department, went for a walk at about 6 a.m. with Dee.

“He got up that morning and said, ‘I had a good night’s rest, and I’m going to go out for a walk,’” said Larry’s wife, Pat.

Pat was still in bed listening to morning sports when she heard a dog start barking at about 10 minutes until 7 a.m.

She said at first she did not think much of it and thought Dee, a Labrador retriever, was simply trying to rouse the neighboring dogs.

But then the bark got louder and more constant, and she said she looked outside and saw that Dee was trying to get to the back door and was caught with her leash on the entrance of the deck.

She unhooked her and noticed Larry was no longer with her.

“I said, ‘Go find Larry,’” Pat said.

And that’s just what Dee did.

Dee alerted Pat that Larry was lying in high weeds at the back of the couple’s property, but he couldn’t ask for help because he was having a stroke. Though he was conscious, he couldn’t move.

“Without this dog, I would have never known he was lying there,” said Pat. “I might have thought he went someplace else to walk.”

Pat said she called 911 and police officers and an ambulance crew came and transported Larry to the emergency room at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea.

She said Larry had extremely high blood pressure and once his blood pressure went down, he was able to receive a medication for his stroke.

Doctors in the emergency room communicated with a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester through a telestroke system, and Larry was ultimately flown to the hospital in Rochester, where he was in the intensive care unit for a day and a half.

“He couldn’t even say his own name or anything like that,” Pat said.

He went through additional evaluation for three days and then entered intense therapy for 10 days, covering everything from speech therapy to occupational therapy.

Pat said doctors are still trying to figure out what caused the blood clot that led to Larry’s stroke.

Though Larry has made much progress since his stroke, he remains in speech therapy at HealthReach in Albert Lea.

The couple said they are grateful for their dog, who they describe as a good hunter and who has a lot of energy.

“I’m thankful I still have a husband,” Pat said.

They found Dee through a party line swap near their summer home in Alexandria. Dee was from a shelter in Long Prairie.

Pat said she calls him her husband’s savior.

Larry and Pat have two sons and two granddaughters. They have lived in Albert Lea for 51 years.