Family dogs refuse to leave side of dying US baby girl

One of the dogs pictured laying beside five-month-old Nora Hall at the hospital. PHOTO: FACEBOOK/ NORA HALL, MIRACLE BABY
The dogs seen laying beside Nora Hall at home, before she suffered a stroke. PHOTO: FACEBOOK

Two loyal basset hounds in the United States refused to leave the side of a dying baby girl who was on life support after suffering a stroke.

The dogs have been pictured lying beside five-month-old Nora Hall at her home in Minneapolis, and also on the hospital bed.

Her mother Mary Hall wrote on Facebook: "My daughter had a stroke on April 6. We have been at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis since then. She is not going to survive.

"They allowed us to have our bassets here in the last couple of days because they are so attached to her."

Mrs Hall shared her plight on the Wonderful World of Basset Hounds Facebook group, to ask for advice on keeping the dogs by her daughter's bedside.

And while the dogs appeared "very stressed and sad" in the hospital, Ms Hall decided to keep them after reading the encouraging comments from members of the group.

Unfortunately, Nora's parents had to make the tough decision of turning off her life support on Tuesday (May 3), as she "was very sick and very hurt", they said in the latest update.

The dogs were also by her side when she took her last breath, they added.

Mrs Hall first noticed that something was wrong when Nora "wasn't really using her left arm or leg" when she turned five months old on April 6. This was followed by a seizure later in the evening, she wrote on Facebook.

The baby was rushed to the emergency room, where "they had determined that Nora had suffered a massive stroke". She was then airlifted to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.

Mrs Hall had earlier written that the longer Nora was kept on life support, "the higher the chance is that she will suffer an acute crisis such as another stroke, heart attack or organ failure that will take her life".

"Our poor girl had a rough time from the very start of her life on this earth. We still await for answers with the DNA exome sequencing as to why she was made genetically unique with tiny blood vessels throughout her body, as her entire medical team had never seen anything like her condition before.

"We hope that she is smiling and laughing with family and that Jesus will hold her safe and close in his arms until we can again."

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