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Brazilian hospital breaks the rules, lets dog visit dying owner

Photo: Youtube

Sometimes it’s okay to break the rules.

Staff turned a blind eye to the “no pets allowed” rule at the Santa Maria University Hospital in southern Brazil to permit a very special visitor: a poodle named Pink.

Eighty-year-old widow Maria Teresinha Prieto Flores, known as Tetê, had spent the last eight years living alone with Pink.

“They drank coffee together every morning,” Jéssica Stello, the daughter of Tetê’s godson and a close friend, told local newspaper Diário de Santa Maria.

“They were inseparable. Often she would stay at home and refuse to go to places where Pink wasn’t allowed.”

When she was admitted to the hospital in December, within the final stages of terminal lung cancer, she confided in a hospital social worker that she missed Pink.

Her dying wish: one final cuddle with her dog.

Her carers pleaded Tetê’s case to hospital administrators, who gave “unprecedented authorization” for Pink to visit her owner — on the condition that the dog’s vaccinations were up to date and that she didn’t enter any of the hospital wards.

On Feb. 5, a freshly groomed Pink visited Tetê in the hospital. For the first time in days, the elderly woman had the strength to embrace her dog.

“Giving that kiss to Pink was a farewell and the realization of her final dream,” Stello said.

Watch their bittersweet reunion in the video above.

“It was worth it to see her joy, even for a few minutes,” hospital social worker Jurema Martirena said.

Tetê died four days later.

Her final visit with Pink might be her legacy at the hospital. The hospital’s head of medicine, Larry Argenta, has since said that future visits between pets and their dying owners shouldn’t only be allowed, they should be encouraged.

Last fall, a Kentucky hospital broke its own no-pets rule to allow a beloved Chihuahua to visit his sick owner. The visit prompted a remarkable turnaround in both the man and dog’s health.

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