Note: we are republishing this story which originally made the news in April 2023.

A retired builder’s life may have been saved by an unlikely hero – his ravenous bulldog puppy who chewed his big toe down to the bone.

David Lindsay, a 64-year-old from Cambridge, was jolted awake by his wife’s scream one morning while he lay asleep on their sofa. To his shock, he found that his right big toe was a gruesome, bloody stump.

The culprit behind this horrifying scene was none other than his seven-month-old bulldog puppy, Harley, who had gnawed his toe while he slept, even cracking the bone and leaving the toenail hanging by a thread.

However, what initially appeared to be a gruesome accident turned out to be a potential life-saver. Subsequent medical examinations revealed that David had lost feeling in his feet due to two blocked arteries in his legs.

David, a father of five daughters and a grandfather to 11 children, has no intention of parting ways with Harley, despite the canine’s accidental life-saving intervention.

The incident unfolded when David’s wife urgently shouted, “Dave, the puppy’s chewing your toe!” He narrated, “My puppy had near enough chewed my big toe off! It chewed down to the my bone and had cracked it. But because of all this, I discovered that my foot is completely numb, I can’t feel anything.”

His wife swiftly wrapped up his wounded toe and rushed him to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambs, where he has been hospitalized for nine days. David has been undergoing intravenous antibiotic treatment to prevent the infection, resulting from the dog bite, from reaching his bone.

Yet, it was precisely because of the severe damage to his toe that David realized he had lost sensation in his foot. During CT scans of the fractured toe, doctors made a startling discovery – not one, but two blocked arteries.

These blockages could jeopardize his entire leg, potentially requiring amputation if blood flow is not restored. Thanks to his bulldog’s unexpected intervention, David is now undergoing evaluations for stents that could unblock the arteries and restore blood flow to his leg.

In an admirable display of gratitude, David has no intentions of parting with his life-saving bulldog, even though he lost two Neapolitan Mastiffs last year. Having never owned a bulldog before, he humorously remarked, “You’ve got to laugh about it. He’s done me a favor by chewing up my toe. So I’m waiting to find out if they can put stents in. I’ll be keeping the dog. I’ll try to keep my toe too, but if not, I told the doctor to cut it off and I can take it home for him!”