A seagull knocked out by a ball during an amateur football match in Türkiye received a life-saving cardiac massage, provided by one of the players.
The incident, widely reported on social networks, occurred when the bird, which was flying over the field at low altitude, found itself in the path of a clearance by the Istanbul Yurdum Spor goalkeeper, Fatih Büyük, sports manager of the Istanbul club, confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.
The team captain then rushed towards the bird, inert in the middle of the field, to give it a rudimentary massage by pressing rhythmically on its ribcage, encouraged by his teammates and his rivals.
“The first thing that came to my mind was to do a cardiac massage, because she couldn’t breathe. So I tried my luck,” player and apprentice resuscitator Gani Çatan told the official Anadolu news agency, specifying that he has no first aid training.
When the bird caught its breath, it was evacuated from the field by medical staff who tended to its damaged wing, said Fatih Büyük.
Gani Çatan’s team lost the match, but “it’s a wonderful thing to have helped save a life; it was more important,” he told Anadolu Agency.
