Squirrel goes nuts in NJ emergency room

[Hum]

About 10 p.m. last night, a grayish-brown flying squirrel trapped itself inside the emergency department at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Rahway, fire department spokesman Capt. Ted Padavano said.

The squirrel kept launching itself from an 8-foot-high wall-mounted lamp and into a glass wall in desperate attempts to evade firefighters, Padavano said.

And, he added, it was the second time in two weeks a flying squirrel found itself in the emergency room.

Slightly larger than a chipmunk and with pieces of skin between its legs and body, the squirrel was corralled into a 15-by-15-foot trauma room that had a glass door, Padavano said.

"It would climb up on a light and would jump off and glide," toward the glass wall, according to Padavano. Falling to the ground, "it would take off like lightning," and repeat its acts of attempted aerial escapism.

"It looked just like a little squirrel, but once it jumped into the air, it had like a glider, or like a bat, skin under its arms, like a little square glider," Padavano said.

Within 10 minutes, a pair of firefighters had thrown a blanket over the nocturnal mammal and released it into a wooded area outside the hospital.

Padavano suggested squirrels may have made a nest in the building.

After all, he said, "What are the odds of having two flying squirrels in the same emergency room?"

source

[Memphis]

This actually happened at the acute facility I work at, well not this incident in particular, but a squirrel got in and caused havoc almost knocking people over that had walkers and just making a mess, took a few of us to finally catch and remove it.

[M_Lyons10]

Hm... I didn't know they had flying squirrels in Jersey... lol I can certainly imagine though that they would get into mischief...

[Japlabot]

I didn't know that Squirrels can fly (excuse my ignorance, we do not have Squirrels around here)

[Hum]

caught on camera !

[HighwayGlider]

Squirrel going nuts!

[DocM]

I didn't know that Squirrels can fly (excuse my ignorance, we do not have Squirrels around here)

Yup - flying squirrels are pretty common. Squirrels of any type, anc somd are pretty large, getting in trouble is nothing new - they're a LOT smarter than most people think and so curious the get into all manner of situations. They also like to taunt dogs, staying just out of reach while chattrring up a storm.

Damned 3 ring circus watching them in the back yard. Pretty tasty too ;)