LI EMS Crew Guide Deer Trapped In Water To Hospitable Habitat

BROOKHAVEN, NY — Emergency Medical Service providers are used to caring for the sick, but a crew of paramedics from Long Island recently got a call about one of the unlikeliest of patients in need — a deer that had became trapped in a local waterway.

“Our job in EMS is the preservation of life — that doesn’t end with just humans,” said South Country Ambulance Chief Greg Miglino, adding, “We are always grateful when our intervention helps a bad situation turn out positive.”

So, the big softies decided to what they do best and lended a helping hand.

The ambulance company’s crew was notified by a resident who lives nearby that a deer had become trapped in the northwest section of the “E” canals just off Great South Bay in Brookhaven hamlet, at about 12:35 p.m, Miglino said.

The Marine Division then deployed its 21-foot skiff, which is designed for shallow water operations, to “evaluate and assist the deer with extrication” from its “watery situation,” according to Miglino.

Since the animal did not appear to be showing signs of exhaustion, the crew, which included Miglino, as well as assistant chiefs Amy Thomas and Joseph Craig, and Lt. Brendan Bone, decided that it would be less stressful to guide the deer — with some encouragement — towards an embankment a few hundred yards east of where it had become stranded.

Miglino, a lifelong resident of the area, said that it’s a little-known fact that deer are pretty good swimmers, so the crew figured it would be better to guide the animal along the waterway, making use of their presence as well as the skiff’s horn.

“We were trying not to alarm the deer,” he explained.

Once near shore the deer promptly made its way onto an embankment, and got out of the water and back toward its regular, and certainly more hospitable, habitat.

The rescued deer seemed unfazed, took one last look at its rescuers, and just went about its business as usual.

“It took one look at us that was like, ‘Okay, I’m out; I’m done here,’” Miglino said.