Deaf woman’s support dog saves husband after midnight stair fall

A deaf woman says her support dog saved her husband’s life after he fell down the stairs — by waking her from a dead sleep to insist something was wrong.

Sandra Donally, 62, from Staffordshire, England, was alerted by her dog Storm after husband Gary tumbled down the stairs in the middle of the night and was left bleeding and unconscious.

She had been fast asleep when Storm suddenly leapt onto her bed shortly after midnight, startling her awake.

Sandra noticed the landing light was on and assumed Gary had gone to the bathroom, but the dog’s behaviour set alarm bells ringing.”She just sat ramrod straight at the other end of the bed, staring out towards the landing,” Sandra said. “I told her that Gary was in the bathroom and asked her to go back to bed, but she wouldn’t move.”

When she wouldn’t look at her, Sandra knew something was wrong. Moments later, she found Gary lying crumpled at the bottom of the staircase.

Paramedics rushed him to Royal Stoke Hospital, where he remained for 24 days undergoing reconstructive surgery on his broken jaw. The couple later worked out that Gary had come out of the bathroom, lost his footing and missed the handrail.

Sandra said she couldn’t bear to imagine what would have happened without Storm.”We usually get up at half past six, so that’s when I would’ve noticed Gary wasn’t in bed — he’d have lain there for six hours, losing blood and with a broken jaw. I’ll always be so grateful to her for alerting me.”

Sandra lost her hearing suddenly in 2017 due to a rare disorder, and was partnered with trained service dog Storm in 2024.”I don’t feel withdrawn anymore because I have Storm by my side; I’m out and about and it’s great,” she said.