Health
Dogs Chase Homeless Owner In Ambulance After Stroke And Refuse To Leave ER Until He Gets Better
The bond between a person and his/her dogs is like no other bond. This story is a testament to that.
Jessica Adler
01.26.19

Anyone who has ever owned a dog knows how deep their particular brand of unconditional love goes, but perhaps no one knows it quite as well as a street-dwelling Brazilian man named Luiz.

On Wednesday, January 2nd of this year, Luiz suffered a sudden stroke that saw him being whisked away in an ambulance.

When his dogs caught wind that their faithful owner was being rushed away in the emergency vehicle, they weren’t going to be left behind.

Facebook Screenshot/Vinegret
Source:
Facebook Screenshot/Vinegret

According to Brazilian news and entertainment outlet, G1, Luiz has been living on the streets of Cianorte in ParanĂ¡, Brazil for the better part of 20 years now, and is well known by locals due to his six steadfast furry friends that keep him company.

Throughout the decades of roughing it in the large city, Luiz has come to see his dogs as his family and, apparently, they feel very much the same way about their beloved owner.

When the ambulance came for Luiz to rush him to the Santa Casa Hospital in Cianorte, his loyal companions weren’t to be outdone by the ambulance, as they unwaveringly chased it for several miles to the facility.

Facebook/Samanta Rossi Sobotta
Source:
Facebook/Samanta Rossi Sobotta

To everyone’s amazement, Luiz’s six devoted dogs showed up right behind him, arriving just as they were pulling him from the ambulance on a gurney into the emergency room entrance.

The four-legged angels desperately tried to enter through the hospital doors to give their emotional support to their owner.

Upon having the doors rapidly shut before they could enter the building, they began howling uncontrollably in unison as they watched their owner disappear from their field of view.

Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte
Source:
Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte

Once it became clear to the dogs that they weren’t going in the hospital, and that Luiz wouldn’t be coming out of it for quite some time, the howling gave way to softer cries from the dogs as they hunkered down.

So great is their love for their master and best friend, they refused to leave him there alone and waited for him to come back out.

The scene of Luiz’s six faithful friends was so touching that the animal welfare volunteers with the non-governmental organization Amigos de Patas Cianorte (Friends of Paws in Cianorte) began taking pictures with their phones to share on social media.

Once posted on their Facebook page, citizens of Cianorte began pouring in on the comments, sending their prayers for Luiz’s safe recovery and reunion with his pals.

Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte
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Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte

Some people even recognized the six loving furbabies.

Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte
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Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte

Even those who haven’t seen Luiz and his loving pack on Cianorte’s streets identified with the camaraderie between dogs and their owners, and wholeheartedly agreed that there is nothing quite like the love of a furry best friend.

Facebook/Amigos de Patas
Source:
Facebook/Amigos de Patas

After living on the city streets for two decades, it’s no wonder that people recognized Luiz and his loyal dog-pack.

Luiz chooses to live on the streets, preferring them to the house of his loving brother and extended family, who has offered him help numerous times.

According to Amigos’ volunteer Simone Ziliane, Luiz suffers from mental health issues and does not want anyone’s help with things like shelter. Even though the organization had set him up with a rental house that included a big yard, he wanted none of it.

“We rented a very simple house for him a while ago, with a big yard for the dogs, but he did not accept or enter the house, he said that his house is the street.”

The offers of help didn’t stop with the house, either. Amigos had also tried to make a suitable kennel for the dogs, only for the pack to ditch it in favor of finding their owner and keeping him company on the city pavement.

“The dogs were also taken to a kennel, which a volunteer from the NGO created, but they jumped the wall and went after their Luiz. The dogs are not far from him.”

With determination like that, it is not at all surprising that these dogs also wouldn’t leave their owner in the hospital, refusing to move from the entrance door until they saw his face, which wouldn’t be for 24 hours!

Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte
Source:
Facebook/Amigos de Patas Cianorte

After 24 hours had passed where doctors could monitor Luiz’s condition, they decided that he was okay to release and sent him home with his brother.

When Luiz and his brother exited the hospital, however, they left through a different door than the ER entrance because Luiz had no idea that his faithful pack of furry friends had chased his ambulance down and waited for him to come out all night.

While he was in the hospital, Amigos de Patas cared for the dogs, giving them both food and water.

When it became clear to volunteers that Luiz had already been released they went to his brother’s house and asked them to come back to the hospital to get his dogs, as they stubbornly wouldn’t leave the ER entrance until they saw their owner.

“The dogs were desperate. On Thursday morning when…Luiz was discharged and left with his brother from another door, the dogs remained at the hospital entrance. One of the volunteers from the NGO had to fetch…Luiz at his brother’s house and take him to where the dogs were for them to leave the front.”

Happily reunited, Luiz refused to go back to his brother’s house in favor of hanging out with his best friends back in the city streets once more.

You can see the heartfelt moment that the dogs arrived at the hospital to greet their human in the video below.

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