Injured deer wanders into Strong after striking car

A deer, severely injured when it ran into a car on Elmwood Avenue Monday, ended up inside Strong Memorial Hospital.

"It wandered toward the hospital and through the automatic doors of the emergency department," said University of Rochester Medical Center spokesman Chris DiFrancesco.

The injured deer made it as far as a corridor near the emergency department, but did not enter a patient care area.

Two Monroe County sheriff's deputies happened to be at the hospital when the deer staggered in.

Assisted by UR's public safety officers, the deputies took the deer out of the hospital.

This photo of a deer on a stretcher will probably break your heart

"They strapped it to a gurney and wheeled it across the parking lot," said Cpl. John Helfer, spokesman for the sheriff's office.

The  deputies called animal control about 5:40 p.m., and the deer was euthanized.

Teresa Hill, an administrator at the Medical Center, said the deer hit the car that her daughter, Carly, was driving on Elmwood.

The deer "literally popped out of nowhere — almost from the cemetery — and struck her car," said Hill. "It happened right in front of the emergency entrance so she pulled in and got out of the car."

Her daughter was very upset and a couple of nurses were there to see if she was hurt, said Hill, but other than a sore neck and broken headlight, she is OK.

No one else was hurt.

"We grew up in the Highland Park area and now live in Lima," said Hill. "We expect to see this kind of thing in the country."

JGOODMAN@Gannett.com