Firefighters in Stratford, East London, UK revived a limp and unconscious four year old cat named Gert who was overcome on September 28 by toxic smoke from a fire at her home, using the same oxygen mask they’d used to treat her owner, Michael Morrison.
Morrison told The Metro: “It was horrible. I collapsed on the floor crying. I said ‘please, please save her.’”
Celia Hammond Animal Trust centre in Lewisham, South London is caring for Gert and tells her story:
Gert is an owned and much loved cat who has survived a terrible ordeal during the week of October 2.
Tragically there was a fire at her home and her distraught owner couldn’t get through the flames to rescue her and she was trapped. The fire service managed to get the fire under control and enter the property, but Gert was laying motionless inside the house…
Firemen brought Gert to the safety of the outside , but she wasn’t breathing. At this stage, they took the decision to attempt to resuscitate Gert at the roadside and incredbily she started to breathe !
The paramedics arrived at the scene, and alongside the fire service they continued to treat her, she was then taken to a private veterinary surgery where she was placed in an oxygen tent for two days. Unfortunately as if things couldn’t t get much worse, the vet bill quickly became too much for the owners to cope with and so they called our Canning Town veterinary clinic for help. However, they already had both their oxygen tents in use by other animals in need so she was instead transferred into our Lewisham vet clinic where we are able to offer low cost veterinary care for people unable to afford private veterinary fees.
When she arrived she was totally unable to move but with the skill and dedication of our veterinary team, who inserted a tube from her esophagus to her stomach, fed her every two hours during the day, and also gave her physiotherapy Gert is now recovering well and is able to move all her legs and hold herself on her sternum. She can pull herself back into her kennel, and lick food (although she’s not strong enough yet to actually take any in).
Everyone involved is incredibly grateful to the fire service and paramedics for helping Gert in the first instance, and all are hoping that she can now continue to improve under the organization’s care.
<via>
How is Gert doing? Are the vet bills paid?