Woman revives baby kangaroo with kiss of life

An Australian wildlife carer has given the "kiss of life" to a baby kangaroo. Lisa Milligan said the "pinky", which was found by a roadside, was lifeless in her hands before she breathed air down its tiny nose and mouth and massaged its heart with her thumb.

"It was gone for all love and money. It wasn't breathing. It was icy to touch and rigid," Ms Milligan said. "But I kept going and after 15 minutes, it suddenly barked, which is what they do. And it started turning from a lifeless grey colour to perfect pink again."



The four-month-old joey, now known as Bernie, was brought into her Wildlife Rescue Centre near Kilmore on Monday. "It was brought in by a man who found it on the road next to its dead mother, who had been hit and killed by a car," Ms Milligan said.

"He told me he had dragged the mother off the road so his daughter would not see it on her way to school the next day, and it was then that he had seen the joey lying nearby. When it got here, its arms were stiff and rigid, almost frozen to its body. I told him it had gone, that it was too late - and he left. But I kept holding it in front of the heater, massaging its back and heart with my thumb while breathing over its mouth and nose, and suddenly it coughed, or barked."