A woman from Australia is inspiring millions of viewers on social media with a powerful video of her service dog saving her life during a panic attack.
Hayley Martin is from Sydney, Australia, and says her dog Marley is her lifeline.
She has autism and often experiences sensory overload and panic attacks which used to be life threatening for her earlier, but now with her service dog by her side, she is doing very well.
Hayley met Marley in May 2018 and since then the pup has made an incredible impact on her mental health and well-being. “This dog has saved my life,” she wrote in 2019. “He has become my service dog. He has made me more independent. Has given me so much of my life back.”
Marley is quick to spot panic attacks and jumps into action by soothing Hayley so she doesn’t get hurt. Hayley has shared a powerful video of one such interaction on the Dogspotting Society Facebook page.
We can see Hayley getting more and more distressed in the video, and scratches and hits her legs in an attempt to calm herself down, but Marley sets his paw over her hand.
Hayley pushes away his paw time and again, but the dog calmly continues. Finally, he jumps onto her lap to give her a “forced hug” and licks away her tears. She appears to still be upset, but starts to settle down and wraps her arms around him.
“So grateful to have this boy every single day,” she wrote. “This was harder to upload, and it’s a bit more severe than the others. But I wanna show people that dogs can help in great ways.” What a beautiful bond these two share and you can see how caring Marley is, as he never gives up on Hayley even though she pushes him away time and again. A great lesson to all of us human beings.
Watch: Service dog helps woman through panic attack
