Man's Quick-Thinking Saves Stillborn Puppy as He Brings Her 'Back to Life'

A man's quick thinking and dedication to saving a stillborn pup has been praised online as over 12 million TikTok users witnessed the rescue.

Liam Paws, known on TikTok as @norfolk.paws.breeding, is a United Kingdom-based dog whelper, meaning he helps assist dogs as they give birth. He compared his job to a midwife's. Sometimes people will bring their pregnant dogs to his house for him to help with the birthing process and raise them for the first few weeks, but more often he will travel to his client's home.

In the viral TikTok video where he saved a stillborn pup, which was posted to the social media platform earlier this week, he was at a client's home helping a French Bulldog mama. Paws told Newsweek that many people believe Frenchies cannot give natural births, but they can. However, the Dog Advisory Council states on its website that many breeders will opt for C-sections or at least will shift to one as this breed is prone to complications at birth.

In this specific case, it was the French Bulldog's first litter and thankfully Paws was there to help as one of the pups started coming out feet-first, the opposite of how it should go. The poor pup got stuck and when Paws finally managed to get the puppy out, there was no sign of life.

In his experience, Paws has helped bring stillborn puppies back to life, which is known as "working a pup." He'll rub the puppy with a towel to stimulate movement and dry them off. Normally, the pup is back to breathing within seconds.

This happened to one of the puppies from this litter. But the shocking rescue, which brought in over 12 million views and 958,500 likes, lasted over two minutes.

"When you have that heavy weight on your shoulders it feels like time is running out," Paws told Newsweek. "If I can save a life, I'm going to do it."

He never gave up on saving this pup, adding that he didn't even realize how much time had passed. The pressure from this job kept him going and exactly two minutes and three seconds later, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

This was the longest time he spent working on the pup. There was another stillborn within the same litter, Paws said, but that one was fine after 30 seconds.

"After 2 minuets [sic] and 3 seconds working on a still born puppy which had gotten stuck inside the birth canal, i was able to bring it back to life!! I honestly have no words to explain this feeling. The emotion I experienced the whole way through was like no other I've experienced before," Paws wrote in the video's caption.

As for the mom and pups, Paws said that they're all healthy and doing great.

TikTok Users React

Users on the social media platform were brought to tears as they witnessed a miracle rescue.

"The mom watching with huge eyes was a tearbreaker," commented one.

Another added: "Absolutely amazing. The mother looked so worried, she knew what was going on."

"Awh thank you so so much for being so brave and saving the puppy," a third wrote.

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