A seriously ill man has been reunited with his best friend after a medical emergency kept them apart for almost a week.

Zeus wasn't making the rounds at Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs. He had just one patient to visit. It was a reunion of best friends separated by a medical emergency. “I had real bad back pains.”

Kentucky truck driver Shawn Withee pulled into the Glenwood rest area off of I-29 and called 911. “They wouldn't let me take him in the ambulance with me, but I told them I wasn't going to leave unless somebody would take care of him.”

Geana Stoops of Hooves & Paws Animal Rescue in Glenwood found a foster home for Zeus while Shawn underwent surgery. “He was in the trucker’s truck and this is his buddy on the road,” said Stoops.

Friday afternoon, the best friends shared a hospital bed. “I've been very worried about him.” They've been riding together in the cab of a semi for two years and 80,000 miles. “When you're out on the road they're your best friends, they're real loyal to you.”

Zeus is being allowed in the hospital to help in Shawn’s recovery. “It’s very neat, I mean he's been missing his dog a great deal since he's been admitted here,” said hospital unit director Mary Colburn. A hospital visit permitted because of Zeus' bedside manner.

Shawn is expected to be released from the hospital on Saturday. A friend is driving up to take him and Zeus back to Kentucky.