Tulsa Woman Raising Money For Lifesaving Dog

Jamie Langham has found a career helping others, but now she's raising money for some lifesaving help for herself.

She has type 1 diabetes and when blood sugar levels are too high or too low it can result in a coma.

She's now raising money for a trained diabetes alert dog to help her manage the disease and keep her safe.

A surgical tech at Saint John Medical Center, Jamie and I met after her shift because I wanted to know how the dog could help.

"The dog has a wonderful way of sensing out the difference in blood sugars," Jamie said

If it's too high or too low it's dangerous and the dog's highly tuned sense of smell can give her early warning that something is wrong.

His name is Levi, and he's being trained to be Jamie's diabetes alert dog at a center in Enid.

"We get posts at least once a week," Jamie said about his training.

It'll be several months before he graduates, but Jamie gets pictures of Levi and his training and has even met him once in person a couple of weeks ago.

Service dogs are not inexpensive, and also not covered by insurance. About $13,000 is what he'll cost.

Jamie is not alone in her fundraising effort. Her mom, Sylvia, is willing to do whatever it takes to help her daughter.

In March, they started raising money for a service dog in Texas, but didn't get enough money fast enough to hold the dog so they lost it and maybe even their deposit.

So they are, in effect, starting over.

But the Oklahoma facility is easier to work with and has some fund raising ideas they hadn't thought of: T-shirts, wrist bands, Reasor's coupon books, and a web site with Jamie's story and some information about type 1 diabetes.

 Levi, the diabetes alert dog, is being trained to help Jamie manage her diabetes and might one day save her life.

"Levi's gonna be my little guardian angel," she said, and who among us doesn't need one of those.

They hope to have Levi trained and at home here in Tulsa by summer.

Go Here To Donate