It's fair to say that Lego is one of the best toys ever made: totally charming, infinitely variable, and as it turns out, damn useful. This week, a bunch of vets have used Lego to give a poor turtle a custom-made wheelchair.
After Pedro the turtle lost his two back legs, his owners took the disabled reptile to Louisiana State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital. There a crafty intern was able to employ parts from a Lego car kit to build him a makeshift wheelchair, which he can now use to travel around in quite easily.
Take a look at this video of Pedro using his new wheels below:Footage of the paraplegic turtle using his new contraption was uploaded to the official Facebook page of LSU's School of Veterinary Medicine, where it quickly went viral.
Commenting on the miraculous DIY fix, communications manager for LSU's School of Veterinary Medicine Ginger Guttner, the told CNN: "There was nothing medically wrong with him. But of course he didn't have any back legs, so our doctors quickly had to figure out what they were going to do."
He added: "Veterinary medicine often requires this MacGyver-like quality. I would say the majority of special equipment we use has been fashioned or re-fashioned for a specific case ... Our patients can be two grams or 2,000 pounds, so we often have to look at things from a completely different perspective."
Not only is Pedro faster than your average tortoise, but he's now much more active. I'm glad this tale has a happy ending, don't you?