A nurse in Kentucky has gone viral after performing CPR on a baby raccoon that had passed out from eating too many fermented peaches. Misty Combs, who works at the Letcher County Health Department in Whitesburg, said her “motherly instincts kicked in” when she found the unconscious animal in a dumpster beside her workplace.
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Combs explained that she and her colleagues noticed a distressed mother raccoon searching for her missing babies. “Our health department is right next to the Kentucky Mist Moonshine distillery, and they had put some fermented peaches in their dumpster,” she said. “The two baby raccoons had gone into the dumpster and got stuck.” Using a shovel, Combs rescued one of the babies, which ran back to its mother, but the other remained unresponsive in a puddle at the bottom of the bin.
The nurse immediately began performing CPR on the second raccoon, which was not breathing and appeared lifeless. Coworkers captured the rescue on video, showing Combs patting the animal on its back and delivering chest compressions until the raccoon regained consciousness. She admitted she had been nervous about being bitten, as raccoons can carry rabies.
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After reviving the baby raccoon, Combs and her colleagues contacted the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, which took the animal to a local vet. The raccoon was deemed healthy enough to be released back into the wild the following day at the same parking lot where it had been found. “I was surprised it lived, and it was amazing to see something that I helped bring back to life,” Combs said.
