Quincy man gives injured deer ride to animal hospital

A Quincy man who spotted an injured deer on the highway Thursday loaded the animal into his car and rushed it to an animal hospital.

Tyler Silverman, a podiatrist at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, was driving to work Thursday morning when he saw the hurt deer while merging onto Route 3.

Silverman called his mother who is a veterinarian and told him the animal could be saved if it didn't have broken legs.

Since the deer didn't have any apparent serious injuries, Silverman called some local animal hospitals and loaded the semi-conscious animal into his small Subaru hatchback with the help of two strangers who had also stopped.

"When the three of us put it in my car, it didn’t really kick too much ," Silverman said. "So I knew I had at least a little bit of time to get somewhere before it really came to."

Silverman drove to New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth and waited for the facility to open.

The wildlife facility needs special permission to treat deer. So, while evaluating the deer, personnel called the State Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Environmental Police and Weymouth Animal Control.

A video shot by Braintree police of the animal taking up the entire back of the car would later spread on social media.

"We were able to determine it did have a concussion," said Dr. Robert Adamski, a wildlife veterinarian at New England Wildlife Center. "It had some minor soft tissue injuries like bruises and scrapes, everything you would expect from getting in a car accident."

Together, the agencies released the animal in the woods. The deer walked away on its own.

While the outcome is positive, Adamski warns others not to do what Silverman did.

"If that deer had actually woken up from its concussion while the individual was driving down the road, it could’ve either killed him, injured him severely," Adamski said. "He could’ve gotten in a car accident. The car would’ve been trashed and totaled."

Cox Media Group