Hundreds Of People Were At Risk Of Dying, Until This Brave Dog Saved Them All

 If you visit Central Park in New York City you may come across a bronze statue of a dog labeled “Balto”. But you may not know the story of this heroic dog and what he did to save the lives of children. The statue was erected in 1925, the year in which Balto, a sled dog in Alaska, saved the children in the town of Nome from a serious diphtheria outbreak.

Wikimedia

That year, the town was stricken with the disease, which is a bacterial infection that was quite serious at the time and especially dangerous to children as it would cause the throat and airways to swell, leading to croup and respiratory problems that could be life threatening.

The town of Nome Wikimedia

In January of 1925, the town of Nome ran out of the antitoxin used to treat infected patients. As the infection spread and more children died, the town’s doctor sent out an urgent plea to have the serum delivered. Without it, adults and children would die; the expected mortality rate was close to 100%

Children with diptheria. Screenshot via YouTube

Nome lies approximately 2 degrees south of the Arctic Circle, and in winter the port on the southern shore was icebound and inaccessible by steamship. The only link to the rest of the world during the winter was the Iditarod Trail, which ran from the port of Seward in the south, across several mountain ranges and the vast Alaska Interior before reaching Nome.

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