Lewis the Koala Dies Days After Dramatic Rescue from Australian Bushfire

The koala who became an internet sensation after being rescued from an Australian wildfire has succumbed to his injuries. Ellenborough Lewis, Lewis for short, died one week after a woman named Toni Doherty was caught on video taking off her shirt and grabbing him off a tree as the landscape burned around them. According to CNN, Port Macquarie Koala Hospital euthanized the koala on Tuesday because his burns were too severe and weren't going to get better. "[Our] number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made," the hospital said in a Facebook post. Experts are afraid that more than 350 koalas have died as a result of the New South Wales fires. The phrase #RIPLewis trended on Twitter worldwide as people mourned. 


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