'I Was Stunned': Wis. Hospital Reunites Patient With His Service Dog

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Cloquet man says he's "so happy" after a Wisconsin hospital found a way to help reunite him with his service dog that he feared he'd lose.

Dennis Wold, 60, recently found out he needed to stay at Essentia Health St. Mary's Hospital-Superior for an extended period of time, and he feared he'd lose his new service dog, Warner, a black Labrador retriever.

Wold thought Warner would be reassigned, because he thought he wouldn't be able to care for the dog in the hospital.

"You could see him emotionally deteriorating," Anna Peterson, one of Dennis' nurses, who also supervises his care team, said. "When he told us he was going to lose his dog, we just refused to accept that outcome."

So, Wold's physician, Dr. Sheri Bergeron, got on the phone with the dog trainer immediately and explained that having Warner at the hospital would be just fine. Two days later, in walked – and wagged – Warner.

"I was stunned, just in disbelief that I could keep him," Wold said. "Now he's with me all day, every day."

Hospital staff say they noticed an improvement in Wold's health soon after Warner's arrival.

"That dog is critical to Dennis' care," says Peterson. "It would have been life-shattering for him to not have his dog."

The hospital says once Wold discharged, the pair will live close to his family near the Twin Cities.

Until that time, however, Wold is with his four-legged friend all day.

"I'm just so happy he's back with me, I couldn't believe it when I saw him," Dennis said.