When things go wrong in Africa……..

In June 2024 my wife Shirley and I embarked upon an organised 5 week camping safari through Southern Africa. The first two weeks were from Johannesburg up to Victoria Falls travelling through the National Parks of Botswana. We had a fabulous time. The second 3-week leg of the tour was from Victoria Falls up through Zambia, Malawi and then down the Mozambique coast to Kruger and back into South Africa.

On Tuesday 25th June, four days into the second tour, we started a river safari on the Kafue River, a tributary of the great Zambezi. We had just set off from camp, there being five two-man kayaks in a row. We were second canoe in line, following the guide, when there was an almighty BANG as our canoe was struck by a hippo from underneath and lifted it out of the water. Shirley, who was in the front of the canoe, managed to swim to the riverbank, but the canoe had slammed into my shoulder and dislocated it as we were capsized so I couldn’t swim….

The hippo grabbed me in its jaws and took me under to the bottom of the river. Although I never saw the hippo, I thought that my time was up! At the bottom, it then fortunately released me and my lifejacket helped lift me back to the surface. I counted to 10, realising that the river was quite deep at that point. At the surface I took a gulp of air but then the hippo grabbed me again and tossed me like a ragdoll, fortunately towards the riverbank where I was able to do a bum-shuffle back to the edge.

Meanwhile the rest of the group raised the alarm, a motorboat came to my aid and I was pulled onto it. I was badly mauled with severe bite wounds to both my legs and my left side, my left upper arm and a dislocated right shoulder. I was in a very bad way……

Back at the jetty, just 100m back upstream, I was loaded into a mini-bus and taken to Chirundu, the nearest village, about 25 minutes away. It was a very bumpy and painful journey across pitted, dirt roads. An air ambulance company was due to meet us in the village centre but they weren’t there when we arrived, so instead I was taken to Mtendere Mission General Hospital; a decision which undoubtably saved my life.

As soon as we arrived, this little African hospital swung into action. Without thinking twice or asking for my insurance details, they assessed the hippo damage and whisked me into theatre to clean my wounds. If they hadn’t acted so promptly there is a strong likelihood that sepsis would have set in which could have proved fatal. I can think of no better illustration of “the kindness of strangers”. However, I shouldn’t have been surprised as Mtendere Mission Hospital is a Christian mission hospital, largely funded by an Italian diocese (see details at the end of this page).

After the operation I was taken by ambulance across the Zambezi into Zimbabwe (more visas, more queuing…) by ACE Air Ambulance to their clinic in rural Zimbabwe to await the aircraft. Shirley then spent the next 30 hours cajoling insurance companies to give the authorisation to evacuate me to a bigger hospital.

Finally, the following afternoon, we got approval from our travel insurance to allow ACE to fly me to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg for further treatment. Once there I was fortunate to receive treatment first class from the A-Team, a group of top surgeons: Dr Wineberg, Dr Venter, Dr Machaka, and Dr Pieterse who performed another six operations under general anesthetic to repair and make good the hippo damage I had sustained for which I am eternally grateful.

While recovering in my hospital bed, I had time to think and reflect on the incident. What struck me most from this near-death experience was the kindness of strangers. I vowed that assuming I made it home to Warwickshire I would talk about the incident at a fund-raising event for the Mtendere Mission Hospital and see if we can offer something back to the hospital that had almost certainly saved my life.

If you feel able, please give what you can afford so that we can help this wonderful little hospital carry on its excellent work in rural Zambia so that both the community and indeed any visiting strangers can benefit from their life-saving care.

Thank you, Roland.

Find out more about Mtendere Mission Hospital, Chirundu, Zambia from their website: http://www.mtendere.org