Wild boars, roe deer, deer, foxes, rabbits, birds, wildcats, hares and dogs are among the most common species of animals that are run over on the roads. However, in some countries elephants also roam free and can suffer the same fate.
Today we move to the province of Chanthaburi, Thailand, to tell you the story of a pachyderm that was saved by a paramedic after being hit by a motorcyclist.
Upon arriving at the scene, the doctor noticed that the elephant, barely a month old, was losing its pulse and was about to become unconscious. Without wasting any time, he began to give him cardiac massages, while all the passers-by watched the unusual scene with their hair standing on end. Fortunately, the particular “patient” responded well to CPR.
It turns out that, in the evening hours of that day, a herd of wild elephants crossed the aforementioned road and, unfortunately, one of the babies was startled by a passing motorcycle. The motorcyclist ended up colliding with the little pachyderm and it flew off his motorcycle and crashed into the pavement.
The poor little animal was left lying on the ground, terrified and screaming in pain. Immediately, the forest control office near the area of the accident sent some of its members to take care of the situation.
While a group of paramedics attended to the dizzy and confused driver, another professional named Mana Srivate was assigned to save the elephant, a type of patient that, by the way, he had never helped in his 26-year career.
Mana started CPR to get him to react. It was an incredibly tense moment for everyone who witnessed the horrific accident. Thanks to the hard work of this man, the pulse slowly returned and the baby elephant managed to stand up.
However, his balance was still very precarious. In view of this, the volunteers moved the mammal to a nearby, safer place, where he was finally able to recover.
“It’s my instinct to save lives, but I was worried the whole time because I could hear his mother and the other elephants calling for the baby. I assumed the location of his heart, based on human theory and a video I saw online. And when the little elephant started moving, I almost burst into tears,” said Mana Srivate.
Then, the little boy’s mother reappeared to take him with her and put a fortunate twist to this dramatic event that, luckily, ended with a happy ending. Meanwhile, the motorcyclist was taken to a hospital and is recovering satisfactorily. Neither he nor the elephant suffered serious injuries.
“They were both very lucky. The crash was tremendous. Fortunately we arrived in time and were able to save both lives,” Srivate added.
In general, road projects have been considered as works that represent a social and economic benefit for the regions and improve the quality of life of the inhabitants. They are therefore an important element of development.
However, the opening of roads, like all infrastructure works and human activities, causes negative effects on the environment, whose identification and evaluation is important in order to design strategies to avoid, mitigate and compensate for these impacts.
Share this story with your friends. If you are driving at night with a high beam and you see an animal, switch to low beam so as not to dazzle it and prevent it from standing in the middle of the road.
