During what must have been a terrifying crash, a motorcycle in Thailand hit a baby elephant. The rider was not critically injured. But the tiny elephant lay strewn across the pavement. When the first motorists stopped to check on it, they found its heart stopped. The poor thing was effectively dead.

The elephant’s mother returned to the edge of the road and began crying out for her baby. All must have seemed lost, then an off-duty emergency responder named Mana Srivate arrived.

Mr. Mana sized up the scene and decided to attempt CPR. He admits that though he’s used the technique dozens of times, he’s never done it on a pachyderm. He said, “I assumed where an elephant heart would be located based on human theory and a video clip I saw online.”

The man began two-handed chest compressions. At first, nothing happened. Mr. Mana admitted that CPR is a last-ditch technique that rarely works like in the movies. But he kept trying, “It’s my instinct to save lives, but I was worried the whole time because I can hear the mother and other elephants calling for the baby.”

After an exhausting ten minutes doing CPR, Mana was shocked when the baby elephant’s eyes opened. “When the baby elephant starting to move, I almost cried.” You can see Mr. Mana trying to save the elephant in the video below:

The above clip captivated the internet. But many worried about the baby elephant being taken away. Have no fear, the story has a happy ending.

Mr. Mana said that when the baby cried out, the rest of the herd returned to the roadside. Emergency responders took the elephant to another site for a checkup and treatment. When they found it had no serious injuries, they returned it to the crash site to reunite it with its mother.