Photo: Screenshot/Supplied
Most people who see a lifeless lizard floating in their holiday pool would probably go “urgh” and splosh it out as quickly as possible before jumping back on their inflatable unicorn. But when Carlos Daly and his two teenage daughters saw a gecko bobbing up and down in their villa pool in Mallorca he felt he had to do something.Daly, incidentally the author’s brother, gently placed the three inch long reptile by the side of the pool and started giving it CPR with his finger. It started slowly breathing and he left the cold blooded animal to recover in the sun. Within an hour it had strolled off to go and cling to a nearby wall to soak up more rays, he said. “It looked hapless lying there. I’d seen someone on TV give a squirrel mini heart compressions so I gave it a go with my finger,” said Daly, a tree surgeon from Brighton, on England’s south coast. “After the first round of compressions its mouth opened as if it was taking a breath. Then after the second round of CPR we left it to warm up in the sun and about 45 minutes later it scuttled off and lay on a wall. I think giving lizards CPR is a good thing, more people should try it. If the pool had not had been there it would not have needed rescuing.”
His daughter, Lucia, 17, said: “It was disturbing”. This is not the first time Daly has helped a small animal. In 2014 he drip-fed two chaffinch chicks, which he named Deano and Salty, with a pipette and taught them to fly.