{"id":819591,"date":"2026-10-31T09:14:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/819591\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T09:14:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:14:27","slug":"family-dog-alerts-mum-to-babys-dangerously-fast-heartbeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/819591\/","title":{"rendered":"Family dog alerts mum to baby\u2019s dangerously fast heartbeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Mum Kim Reynolds, 41, was confused by her pet Doberman Saraya&#8217;s unusual &#8221;needy&#8221; behaviour around six-month-old Alexander.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A baby&#8217;s life was saved after the family dog detected that he had a racing heartbeat. (Image: William Dax \/ SWNS)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Saraya wouldn&#8217;t leave the baby&#8217;s side and cried every time he was taken away from her that morning.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Alexander later became upset and looked unwell, and his mum rushed him to Royal Bournemouth Hospital&#8217;s A&amp;E department.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Doctors discovered Alexander was suffering with a dangerously fast heart rhythm, at 280 beats per minute.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Two days later he was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Kim, a former canine hydro-therapist and first-time mum, said: &#8220;Saraya knew his heart rate was higher than it should&#8217;ve been.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8221;I had no idea. She sensed it. I dread to think what would have happened if I just put him in the cot and walked away.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  When she went to A&amp;E in September for seven-month-old Alexander, Kim feared they were wasting professional&#8217;s time as he had stopped crying.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Then she found out how fast his heart was beating.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  In order to shock Alexander&#8217;s heart rhythm back to normal, they had to &#8220;dunk him&#8221; in a large bucket filled with cold water and ice.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Kim, of Shepton Mallet, Somerset said: &#8220;They put him in and the scream was horrific, that&#8217;s all I hear now.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8221;They did it twice and his heart rate still hadn&#8217;t come down.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A baby&#8217;s life was saved after the family dog detected that he had a racing heartbeat. (Image: William Dax \/ SWNS)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  She then decided it was &#8220;enough&#8221; and she wanted them to try intravenous medication.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Three doses of the medication finally brought his heart rate down and the family was transferred by ambulance to Poole Hospital.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Kim stayed for two nights and received his Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome diagnosis.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Kim described the syndrome as &#8221;an extra but of tissue in his heart, which basically means electrical pulses can get through where they shouldn&#8217;t That&#8217;s when he can&#8217;t calm his heart rate&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Alexander now takes the beta blocker propranolol three times a day through a syringe.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Kim said he &#8220;knows he needs it&#8221; and drinks from the syringe himself &#8220;hassle free&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  This month, Saraya began acting different around Alexander again.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A baby&#8217;s life was saved after the family dog detected that he had a racing heartbeat. (Image: William Dax \/ SWNS)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Kim said: &#8220;He was in his bouncer and she was next to him, licking his hands, looking at me.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8221;My first thought was &#8216;oh god are we going to go into SVT again&#8217;.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  After checking his pulse, she noticed his throat looked red and took him to A&amp;E.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He was diagnosed with bacterial tonsillitis and prescribed penicillin.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Kim said: &#8220;I 100% trust Saraya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mum Kim Reynolds, 41, was confused by her pet Doberman Saraya&#8217;s unusual &#8221;needy&#8221; behaviour around six-month-old Alexander. A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-819591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}