It was September 2018 when Ray Delfing was exhibiting at a dog show with his beloved Great Dane, Turq. He had no clue his life was about to change forever.
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"I went into cardiac arrest," said Delfing, of Columbus, New Jersey.
Gratefully, maybe incredibly, healthcare professionals on hand at the event stepped in to save Ray's life.
"You know, it's just how fast your world changes. Then they brought him back, you know, pretty amazing people," said Delfing's wife Linda.
He spent months in a tumultuous recovery process, including open heart surgery. He was able to make it through with help from his family. And of course, man's best friend.
"It was Turq and Phoenix who didn't leave my side the entire time," said Ray of his dogs.
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It was Ray's trauma that returned throughout the recovery process that his dogs somehow fetched and ran away with.
"There's just this unexplainable fear that takes over and the dogs help to reduce that significantly. So that got me to thinking, you know, if this could work for me, I decided to look into find out what's all this stuff about therapy dogs," he said.
So that's exactly what he did. Now his Danes are certified as therapy dogs to share their affection and calming attributes with others who need them.
One of their venues is the Orchards Assisted Living, where they lend a paw for residents who may not have any furry friends in their lives.
"The percentage of people who survived cardiac arrest, especially out in the middle of an open field, that's a very small number. And I made it through that. It's important to me that I turned that into something good, and the best way that I knew how to do that was to be able to take the experience that I had and help other people with that."
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