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En route to Port Edward a traveller performs C-section on doe

A traveller heading to Port Edward on vacation from Alberta performed an C-section on deceased doe on the side of the road.
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A man travelling to Port Edward performed an emergency C-section on a pregnant doe that was hit by a truck. The doe died but he was able to save its fawn

A traveller heading to Port Edward on vacation from Barrhead, Alberta performed a C-section on the side of the road after the vehicle in front of his truck collided with a pregnant doe.

Sean Steele and his wife were just outside of Smithers when they witnessed a truck collide with the deer.

Steele stopped to assess the damage. The deer was badly mangled and it looked like it was suffering.

“I went to drag it off the road and put it out of its misery,” he said. The deer died just then but he noticed something moving inside and that was when he spotted a foot sticking out of the deceased doe.

“I took my knife and gave it a Cesarean and pulled that fawn out. I got it to breathe. I stuffed some grass up its nose to get it to sneeze and get the fluid out of its nose,” he said. Lucky for the fawn, Steele was raised on a farm. “I’ve pulled lots of cows. We’ve seen lots of that stuff going on.”

He cleaned up the little fawn, tucked her in a pink laundry basket and placed her in the back seat of his truck.

The woman who was in the vehicle that struck the deer phoned the game warden who told them about the Northern Lights Wildlife Sanctuary in Smithers.

Steele and his wife dropped the fawn off and continued on their way to visit family and to go fishing. They named the fawn Friday for the day it was born.

It has been a few days since the incident and Friday is doing well.

“She took to the bottle right away and she’s with another fawn who’s quite happy to have company,” Angelika Langen said from the Northern Lights Wildlife Society. “We’re going to raise her until she’s old enough to take care of herself possibly later on this fall.”