Woman Says Hero Rescue Dog Saved Her from Carbon Monoxide Leak: 'Don't Know Where I'd Be'

An Indiana woman is incredibly thankful for her rescue dog, especially after the pet alerted her to a carbon monoxide leak and, as first responders later explained to her, ultimately saved her life.

Samantha Griffin, 38, spoke with Good Morning America on Thursday, July 11, about when her two-year-old husky Luna began "pouncing on" her in June to go outside shortly before first responders discovered that her Marion apartment had a significant carbon monoxide leak.

Griffin told the outlet that this story started in late May when Griffin decided to unplug her smoke and carbon monoxide detector because the device was periodically going off.

"So we just kept thinking it was a power issue. But when Luna started acting up and then I started getting a headache, we [were] just like, something ain't right," Griffin said.

Luna, who Griffin rescued from Speedway Animal Rescue in September 2023, then took matters into her own paws on June 24, when her owner tried to rest up amid a "bad migraine."

Luna wouldn't let Griffin sleep. "All day long, she was bugging me to go outside. And normally she don't do that," Griffin said, adding that her dog, estimated to be around two years old, began to "pounce" on her.

"I think I still have bruises from where she's hit me — and she scratched up my door and stuff like that, trying to get out, so she was alerting us way before the alarm even went off," she said.

Eventually, after Griffin contacted her building's maintenance, her local fire department arrived to find a significant carbon monoxide leak and credited Luna with saving her owner's life.

Marion Fire Prevention Chief Brandon Eckstein told local outlet WRTV that the apartment's carbon monoxide levels were "outside of our normal range of point zero nine parts per million." Eckstein added that homeowners should have their "flue pipes checked yearly" and "carbon monoxide detectors close to those natural gas appliances."

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According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 400 Americans die each year from "unintentional CO poisoning," not linked to fires, with over 100,000 visiting the emergency room and 14,000 hospitalized.

The dog owner told GMA her apartment's leak was caused by a bird's nest sitting in the flue of her building's gas water heater.

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"Luna did save my life that day. If she hadn't gotten me out, I definitely probably would have fallen asleep and just died," Griffin said.

"I'm just so overwhelmed, grateful for all of it. Because I don't know where I'd be right now without her," she added to the outlet.