They all stayed by the drain until he was safe ❤️

When a nurse at St. Helier Hospital in Sutton, England, walked past one of the hospital’s drains last year, they immediately did a double take. Someone was stuck six feet down, confused and shivering. The nurse immediately contacted the RSPCA, then stayed waiting by the drain — and soon, a crowd had gathered.

The entire nursing staff quickly became invested in the rescue, and when the RSPCA arrived to help, they had an audience.

“The cub was about six feet down so I went down on a ladder,” Yalina Blumer, an animal rescue officer with the RSPCA, said in a press release. “I had a crowd of people from the hospital watching me, and one of them lowered the basket down to me. I managed to catch the cub with my grasper and he was lifted up.”

The trapped animal turned out to be a young fox who had accidentally gotten himself stuck, a phenomenon the RSPCA deals with often. There was some concern he might have a broken leg, but luckily, he was mostly OK.

“The young fox was bright and alert, but he had pale gums and I was unsure how long he had been trapped so it was important he was checked out,” Blumer said.

Everyone at the hospital was so relieved when the fox made it out of the drain. They spend all day caring for sick and injured people, making sure they’re all OK, and the little fox became a patient on their roster that day.

Once the fox was deemed healthy, Blumer brought him back to a safe area outside the hospital to be released.

“I released him into the woodland backing onto the hospital, where staff said it is known there are dens,” Blumer said.