A routine task for Mari Youngman, Rio Americano’s new biology teacher, took a dangerous turn earlier this week when she fainted in the main office from a sudden drop in blood pressure. Fortunately, help was close at hand.
Youngman recently started bringing her service dog to school, a 3-year-old German Shepherd trained to respond to just such an emergency.
Hugs, who previously belonged to Youngman’s boyfriend, went through 18 months of intense training to qualify as a service dog who assists Youngman with her heart conditions. Because she has difficulty controlling her heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and stress levels, she can faint or her heart can stop at random.
“He alerts me to anything that might be happening,” Youngmain said. “I have trouble regulating my heart rate and my blood pressure, so he lays over my legs to bring my blood pressure back up.”
“If it ever gets to the point where he needs to start letting other people know, he does what I call the ‘bark alert’ where he barks nonstop to let people know that something’s going on,” Youngman said.
Hugs also practices the technique of laying on Youngman’s legs, called compression therapy, when she faints.
“Compression therapy is used for people with cardiac disorders,” Youngman said. “(Hugs) lays on my legs to bring my blood pressure back up, so he adds compression.”
Youngman has orthostatic hypotension, a condition that causes an irregular heartbeat and low blood pressure, and POTS, a vasovagal disorder. She was first diagnosed when she was 12 and has had a service animal since then.
“My body can’t regulate itself very well,” Youngman said. “It was diagnosed when I was 12 years old and my previous service animal saved my life.”
She first learned of her heart condition when she hit her head after fainting as an early teenager.
An intensive 18-month one-on-one dog training for her first service animal certified her to train one on her own.
Whether students can interact with Hugs depends on if he is wearing a vest: if not, they can pet him, but if yes, “act like he doesn’t exist,” according to Youngman.
“This is 100% something he’s been trained to handle,” Youngman said. “I did a safety talk with my students.”
Youngman majored in marine biology in Florida and recently moved to California due to her boyfriend’s military position. When she was younger, she had fish, sea stars and geese in a large home saltwater system, which she attributed her biology interest to. Her classroom features a small hamster and a tortoise.
Youngman also loves to scuba dive and spend time in the ocean.