Refrigerator duck plays Lazarus again

Bird that lived 2 days in fridge after being shot flat-lines in surgery, revives

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Duck still alive after brushes with death
Jan. 29: A ring-necked duck nicknamed "Perky" is garnering international fame after surviving at least three brushes with death. Mike Vasilinda reports.

NBC News Channel

updated 5:26 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Call her Lazarus — and then some.

The ring-neck duck has been shot by a hunter, rescued from two days in a refrigerator by his wife and — in its latest brush with death — resuscitated on a veterinarian's operating table.

The one-pound female duck stopped breathing Saturday during an operation to repair gunshot damage to her wing, said Noni Beck of Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary. Veterinarian David Hale performed CPR and managed to get the fractured fowl breathing again after several tense moments.

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"I started crying, 'She's alive!'" Beck said.

Perky grabbed national attention last week after a hunter's wife opened her refrigerator door and the supposedly dead duck lifted its head and looked at her. The duck had been in the fridge for two days since it was shot and mistaken for dead on Jan. 15.

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Shot duck survives 2 days in refrigerator

Perky, who now has a pin in hers wing, will probably not undergo any more surgery because of a sensitivity to anesthesia, Hale said. The duck is recovering from its latest ordeal.