College student uses CPR to save drowning squirrel

Apr. 06: A Michigan college student said she used a CPR technique she learned from NBC’s The Office to save the life of a drowning squirrel.

Central Michigan University student Natalie Belisto posted a video to Twitter showing her rescuing the drowning squirrel and later keeping it warm with a hair dryer.

Belisto said the squirrel had been drowning in a pond.

“It was a super cool feeling to know that I saved an innocent life,” Belisto told WNBC-TV. “I watched a lot of Animal Planet as a kid, but for the CPR part was literally all from that episode in ‘The Office.'”

Belisto said the CPR technique she used came from a fifth season episode where the staffers learned to use the beat of the 1977 Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” to time chest compressions.

Belisto said the squirrel’s release later in the day went well.

“After he ran up the tree we all were screaming and our minds were blown honestly, the whole night we couldn’t stop talking about what happened,” Belisto said. UPI.com