Lewis, the koala that was rescued by a hero grandma from the Australian bushfire, has succumbed to his burn injuries.
Last week, a hero grandma saved Lewis after he was caught up in the raging bushfires of Port Macquarie.
Toni Doherty, the grandmother that saved Lewis, took her shirt off to save the koala as he was going towards the burning trees.
Risking her own safety, Toni took her shirt off and wrapped the koala in it.
The grandma then went to get her water bottle so she could cool the burnt skin of the poor Koala and quench its thirst.
Toni’s heroic rescue was captured on camera, and the video went viral pretty fast.
The grandma rushed Lewis to the Port Macquarie Koala hospital, where it was treated for 1 week.
The koala hospital treated Lewis for its burnt hands, feet, arms, and his legs.
When Toni went to the hospital, the staff called her legend.
The sad thing is that the road to recovery for Lewis was pretty hard.
On November 24, 2019, the hospital announced that they were uncertain of the koala’s future.
In the announcement that they made on November 24, 2019, it said, “If we feel that his injuries and his pain are not treatable and tolerable, we will put him to sleep as this will be the kindest thing to do.”
2 days after the announcement, the hospital said, “Today we made the decision to put Ellenborough Lewis to sleep. We placed him under general anaesthesia this morning to assess his burns injuries and change the bandages. We recently posted that “burns injuries can get worse before they get better”. In Ellenborough Lewis’s case, the burns did get worse, and unfortunately would not have gotten better. The Koala Hospital’s number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made.”
They added, “We thank you for your ongoing support.”
The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital is treating over 30 koalas that sustained burn injuries that they sustained from the bushfires.
The hospital says not all of the koalas are going to survive.