No one ever wants to be in the position where they have to give CPR, but it’s an essential skill to know.
Being trained in CPR will help you save the life of just about anyone who needs it, from loved ones to strangers- and sometimes even animals.
In Chantaburi, Thailand, when an unconscious elephant calf was found in the middle of the road, one man had to adapt his CPR training to try and give the animal the best chance of survival.
The baby elephant had been hit by a car and wasn’t breathing. The man needed to act fast.
Using an online video for help, the man was able to locate the elephant’s heart- and with that, he began pumping. With humans, you would also put in some rescue breaths, but those would have been pretty useless to attempt on an elephant!
After five minutes of hard work, the elephant calf finally began to come round. Amazingly, although she had been lying unconscious on the road for over five minutes, she was able to stand up as if nothing had happened.
The main thing was that she was alive and breathing, but rescuers wanted to make sure she was completely okay.
Since the elephant had been hit by a car, she could have been suffering from some broken bones or damage to internal organs. To be on the safe side, rescuers took her for a checkup before she could be released back into the wild.
Thankfully, the calf was given the all-clear, and it wasn’t long before she was back in her natural habitat again. Rescuers kept her fingers crossed that she would be able to find her mom again since she was still only quite young.
Hopefully, her mom would be able to give her some pointers on road safety!
To everyone’s relief, a few weeks later, someone spotted a calf resembling the injured calf walking along with its mom. It seemed that the pair had been reunited after all.
CPR is such an important skill to know, and while you’re probably unlikely to have to perform CPR on an elephant anytime soon, we thought we’d share with you some instructions on basic CPR for humans:
1. Call 999 and ask somebody to locate the nearest defibrillator.
2. Lay the person on their back and tilt their head to open the airway.
3. Check for breathing by putting your ear close to their mouth.
4. Check for response by talking to the person and lightly pushing their shoulders.
5. Perform 30 chest compressions, keeping your arms straight and hands locked together. For children who are smaller, one hand should be more than enough. Babies or small animals (like cats and dogs) only require you to use two fingers.
6. Hold the person’s nose, tilt their head back and perform two rescue breaths.
7. Repeat until an ambulance or defibrillator has arrived.
This man is a hero for taking the time to help bring the elephant calf back to life. And since they say elephants never forget, we know that this calf will be grateful for him for life!
Take a look at the man’s lifesaving actions in the video below.
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