This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A deer apparently hit by a car brought itself to a New York hospital and walked into the emergency room.

Hospital officials say the deer walked through the automatic doors at the entrance to Strong Memorial hospital’s emergency room late on Monday afternoon in Rochester. Officials say the deer made it about 20ft down a corridor before staff members corralled it.

The deer was struck by a vehicle before it entered the hospital, said Lori Barrette, a hospital spokesperson. It arrived with at least one broken leg.

“This was a first-time incident,” Barrette wrote in an email to the Guardian.

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The Monroe County sheriff’s office said two deputies happened to be at the hospital when the deer wandered in. They and hospital public safety officers strapped the deer to a gurney and wheeled it out to the parking lot.

Deer are often injured by cars, said John Helfer, a spokesperson for Monroe County sheriff’s office.

“In the area we cover 800-900 accidents a year,” he said. “Deer being injured by vehicles and then subsequently put down after they’re injured is quite common.”

Helfer could not speak to the extent of the deer’s injuries.

“I had to listen a little hard to my radio today when I heard a call about a deer in the emergency department, but you know, it’s the time of year when they’re running a lot and this one was pretty obviously struck by a car,” public safety chief Mark Fischer told Time Warner Cable news.



A sheriff’s deputy shot and killed the deer because of its injuries, Helfer said.