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In Letcher County, Kentucky, an unusual situation unfolded when a bunch of fermented peaches made a dumpster hazardous, prompting Misty Combs, a seasoned local nurse, to come to the rescue.
“I’ve had some pretty crazy days on the job, but nothing like this,” Combs told WLEX.
In her 21 years of nursing, Combs thought she’d seen it all. The RN works at the Letcher County Health Department in Whitesburg.
One day she and her coworkers noticed a panicked raccoon darting through the parking lot. Then, they heard a commotion from a nearby dumpster.
Combs described the scene by saying, “Our health department is adjacent to Kentucky Mist Moonshine, a distillery. They disposed of some fermented peaches in their dumpster, which attracted baby raccoons that got trapped inside,” she narrated.
Drunk as a skunk? Try tipsy as a trash panda.
When fermented peaches turned a dumpster into danger, longtime Letcher County nurse Misty Combs stepped in to save the day.
Combs realized the mother raccoon was frantic to find her babies and get them to safety.
Driven by her maternal instincts, she added, “I was compelled to help them out. Watching the mother raccoon desperately trying to retrieve her babies, I felt it was necessary to act.”
Using a shovel, Combs freed the first raccoon, which promptly ran back to its mother. The second raccoon was in more distress, lying face down at the dumpster’s bottom with a mix of water and peach-infused moonshine.
Without hesitation, she grabbed the raccoon by the tail and pulled him to safety, but quickly realized that he had passed out.
Witnesses thought the worst. “People around said, ‘It’s gone, it’s not breathing.’ It seemed to have drowned, as its body felt waterlogged. I instinctively began CPR,” Combs recounted.
A video captured by a colleague depicts Combs administering chest compressions and turning the raccoon to its side to clear its airway. Despite never having performed CPR on an animal, she shared with LEX 18 that she improvised to deliver critical assistance.
Suddenly, the raccoon began breathing, although Combs admits she had some hesitation.
“The entire time, I was afraid it’d come-to and eat me up, and raccoons carry rabies so I was afraid of that.”
Fish and Wildlife responded before the town drunk turned into a mean drunk. They transported the animal to the local veterinarian who administered fluids and got the raccoon sobered up.
Combs and her colleagues named the critter Otis Campbell, named for the infamous Andy Griffith Show character. Eventually, Otis was returned to the Health Department’s parking lot where Combs had the honor of releasing him back into the wild.
