Viral video shows man saving squirrel using CPR

Two Brooklyn Park police officers were on their daily patrol when they encountered an unexpected sight: a young man trying to revive a squirrel he had accidentally hit with his car.

A video captured with the body camera of Deputy Chief Mark Bruley, from the Brooklyn Park Police Department in Minessotta, has been melting hearts all over social media in the past days. Initially shared by the police department’s Facebook account, the clip has gathered over 770k views and 18k shares.

According to the description at the beginning of the video, the police officers were doing their routine patrol when they noticed a car parked on the side of the road with the driver’s door open. A young man was bent on the sidewalk, so they stopped to make sure he was fine.

As they stepped out of the car, they noticed the man was trying to give CPR to an unconscious squirrel. When they asked what happened, Chris Felix, 19, explained that the little animal ran in front of him, and even though he did a swerve to avoid crashing him, he ended up hitting him.

SAVING THE SQUIRREL'S LIFE

The squirrel didn’t show signs of being hit by the wheel, so the three men assumed it was just unconscious, probably by the shock. Felix kept on giving the critter’s chest little pushes, trying to revive him with CPR.

Later, following the officer’s recommendation, he flipped the squirrel over, and after 20 minutes the little animal finally came back, immediately running away to a set of trees, for the delight of the three excited men.

“We’ll put you in for a life-saving award,” one of the officers says, and Bruley adds “You saved his life, dude!” as they high five Felix.

Talking about the little heroic act, Felix told NBC4:

“I was just helping out the squirrel, you know. I was like, well you know, you never get to see this. I was there trying to help it out, you know. Something little means a lot in the long run."

He revealed that it took almost 20 minutes before the squirrel finally got up.

"How often you come across a story where you see a police officer come upon somebody doing CPR on a squirrel?" said officer Bruley.

“Just the humanity of it. It wasn't just a police officer and a citizen there. Those were just three people enjoying the moment.”

ANOTHER SIMILAR SQUIRREL TALE

Is not the first time a video of a squirrel being brought to life with CPR becomes viral.

A clip recorded in Colombia shows how a little squirrel almost died after getting electrocuted by some power lines. A group men saw the incident and picked up the animal, as one of them tried to reanimate it while giving it CPR with his fingers.

At one point, the man performing CPR opens the rodent’s mouth to get air inside its body. He carries on pumping on its chest for more than a minute until it finally starts breathing again.

It takes a few more minutes for the animal to come back fully, but eventually, it jumps off and runs away, as its saviors keep an eye on it to make sure everything is ok.