Gloucester man performs CPR on tortoise to save life
A retired postman saved his drowning tortoise's life after performing CPR on its limp body.
Distraught John Fletcher found 45-year-old Freda at the bottom of his garden pond and immediately called his daughter to tell her the bad news.
An hour after finding his beloved pet John started performing CPR - and gave the animal mouth to mouth resuscitation, unwilling to accept it had passed away.
The amateur astronomer, who has built an observatory in his back yard in Gloucester, was bewildered when Freda vanished on Saturday afternoon and eventually reached into the pond, where he found his pet.
John said: 'It must have been in there for at least an hour. I took it out and it was looking quite dead and limp.
John Fletcher with Freda, the 45-year-old tortoise who came back from the dead after he performed CPR on her
'I decided to put my own mouth around the head and give a few short blows having stretched its head out a little.
'A small half teaspoonful of water came out of its mouth which I had opened.'
He pushed on with bringing Freda back to life and performed life-saving treatment for another hour.
'I detected some movement so I warmed it up with a hairdryer, massaged its legs and neck and after another full hour it started gasping and opened its eyes,' John said.
Fletcher has owned Freda for many years after he took ownership of the tortoise from an old friend who couldn't look after her.
He already had a tortoise of his own so was the obvious choice to be the new guardian, as the two could keep each other company.
But regrettably, only Freda woke after hibernating one year and she lost her pal.
Now, John is very attached to the middle-aged Freda, who he calls the 'big lady tortoise' and gives free range of his garden, and said he would be 'devastated' if she hadn't come back to life after falling in the pond.
He said: 'I had a tortoise from a very young age and that one passed away suddenly.
'He was hibernating and some mice got in and chewed one of his legs off and he died, that was about 20 years ago.
'I've got Freda now and I'm more careful. I'd have been devastated if she didn't come back, I've grown attached to this tortoise.
'When I couldn't find her I thought that maybe someone had jumped the fence and stolen her, I really didn't know what could have happened.
Fletcher has owned Freda for many years after he took ownership of the tortoise from an old friend who couldn't look after her
'She could have been in the pond for a day for all I know, I know she was in there at least an hour because that's how long I was looking for her.
'Her head and her limbs were limp, like jelly. She was that far gone.
'I rang my daughter up because I was very upset, then about an hour later I decided to try and save Freda by breathing in her mouth.
'I first did it and about a teaspoon of water came out. I didn't think much of it, I thought it was just pushed out by my air, but then her leg twitched.
'I thought it was just a nerve or something but I decided to try again and its head went in like a tortoise does when it's scared.
'I then massaged her chest for about an hour and the legs kept moving and finally she came back to life.
'Today, she's eaten a quarter of a tomato and two lettuce leave so I don't think she's got brain damage.
'She's just walking around and looking at things like normal, the only difference is that now she's looking at a barrier around the pond that I put up yesterday.
'Tortoises are very strong animals, but she can't push this fence over.
Freda has a diet of hand-picked dandelion leaves, banana, cucumber, grapes, and home-grown tomatoes
'I'm not an expert but I think that the water was cold enough to make the tortoise shut down so she didn't breathe so fast.'
Although John said he was relieved that Freda has survived, he won't be giving her any special treats.
Instead, she will exist on her ordinary diet of hand-picked dandelion leaves, banana, cucumber, grapes, and home-grown tomatoes.
'She won't eat tomatoes from the big supermarkets, she will only eat homegrown, organic tomatoes,' John said.