Kicker: Turtle wheelchair

NICK EICHER, HOST: An employee at the Maryland Zoo recently found a wild turtle wandering around on the grounds and could instantly tell something wasn’t quite right.

Turned out the turtle had fractures to the underside of its shell. So the zoo staffer took the little guy to a veterinary extern at the zoo and he performed surgery.

It was a success. But the turtle’s underside needs to be kept from scraping the ground, and that would mean immobilizing him. Too bad for the turtle, there’s not much of a market for turtle wheelchairs.

So the vet drew up a few sketches of a makeshift wheelchair and sent them to a friend. Turns out he’s a Lego enthusiast and he was able to craft something custom.

A few weeks after the surgery, the turtle is now rolling around on Lego wheels.

Zoo staff says it could take up to a year for his shell to heal.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Sinclair Miller/The Maryland Zoo via AP) In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo provided by the Maryland Zoo, a wild turtle with a broken shell gets around on a wheelchair made of Legos while on the mend at the zoo in Baltimore.

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