Number 15 - Leopard Mauling:
First from the wife:
Wayne Williamson has been mauled by a leopard while hunting in mozambique.
Below is an email from his wife:
Wayne spent three hours in theatre this afternoon, came out sore and shattered. His head looks like an axe murderer has mutilated it. He has a fractured bone in his left hand, they cannot set it as had to open it up to clean it - it is very swollen from that bad leopards nasty bacteria !!!!! His shoulder & left arm, hand are really not functioning at all. Had a cat scan yesterday the skull is not fractured thank God.
A French PH and his client wounded the leopard the night before, Wayne went in to help them. Wayne was crouching down when it came - it all happened very fast. The leopard hooked him on the right side of his head and pulled his head into its mouth. Wayne some how got his hand and arm into its mouth to try and get it to stop eating his head, Wayne managed to throw the leopard off and the french PH shot it. This all happened in Mozambique, Wayne wrapped up his head on his own, organised the others to get the vehicle, then set his GPS and walked to the vehicle on his own - the thought of that makes me sick, I can't believe they let him walk on his own (he was probably being very bossy). They drove back to camp, got him into a boat, flew to Kariba for fuel and they came into Byo.
For some bizarre reason Wayne wrote out all his medical aid details that am and gave them to the camp manager, he wrapped a towel around his left arm & duct taped it, he then put a leather glove on (he has never done that before) - that is the hand / arm that he shoved into the leopards mouth - the damage would have been far more severe without that protection. Wayne usually leaves his medical aid kit in the vehicle, he made his tracker carry it. The leopard literally scalped him, I cannot describe what his head looks like, no damage to his face or eyes.
I hope this e mail makes sense, I am exhausted and not thinking very clearly. We hope to get Wayne to JHB tomorrow. I told him you had e mailed and a tired little smile broke out, his eyes look so sad and shattered. But he is being very brave, he honestly makes more fuss when he has flu."
Then From Wayne:
"This is the story from Wayne as it happened.
The leopard was wounded on the saturday evening, Wayne offered Yann his assistance on the follow up of the leopard in the morning. This is normal practise in a camp - PH's always help each other out. At six am the next morning they were on the trail - with very little blood to follow the tracking was slow, they had worked out that one of the legs had been shot, but they were not sure which one. Both Yann and Wayne were carrying shotguns, the trackers were carrying the heavy rifles. They tracked and caught up with the leopard at three pm sunday afternoon. They were alerted to it's presence by a troup of baboons, they moved in hoping the baboons had distracted it, and they could shoot the leopard. The leopard charged, but due to long grass and thick bush they could not see it, the leopard could not get to them it then disappeared into a small gulley. The tracker heard it and Wayne and Yann tried to get in ahead of it to cut it off. They heard it charging again, Wayne crouched down on his haunches to try to see under the leaves , it was very thick. The leopard broke cover but it was so quick neither Yann or Wayne could get a bead on it, they both fired. By the time Wayne re loaded the cat was on him (it was later found the cat had been hit by a shotgun by some of the first shot). As Wayne was crouching down, it hooked its paw around his right ear and jaw, throwing him off balance - it then started biting and scratching Wayne's head. Wayne had wrapped padding around his left arm and was wearing a glove on his left hand. Wayne pried his left hand and arm into the leopards mouth to stop it attacking his head. Once this was done he managed to roll the leopard off, within a fraction of a second of rolling it off, Yann managed to shoot it. Yann had wanted to shoot before, but wisely held back as he would have killed both Wayne and the leopard.
The leopard was then shot again to make sure it was dead. Wayne stood up, his scalp was flapped forward over his eye lids, Wayne placed his skin back into position and placed a trauma dressing over his head. Yann and Wayne then planned their next move, Yann would run with one tracker straight to the vehicle and bring it to the nearest point - Wayne had marked the road on his GPS and Wayne would follow the GPS to the nearest point on the road. The remaining tracker and game scout would recover the leopard and other belongings, then follow Wayne. The road was approx 1 1/2 kms - Wayne managed to get to the road before the trackers, and Yann later met Wayne there with the vehicle. One the way back to camp Yann drove and Wayne was on the radio to camp requesting they have bandages and anti septic ready to tend to the wounds and try to stop the bleeding.
Simon Rodger (for who Wayne works) had landed in neighbouring Zimbabwe (Kanyemba), Simon heard the radio conversation and started proceedings to keep air ports open, and clear the route for Wayne to be flown back to Bulawayo for immediate medical assistance. Simon also managed to keep Kariba airport open for the aircraft to re fuel. At this time Wayne was in camp, he poured anti septic over his head and onto a field dressing - this was strapped to his head. They continued to add bandages and towels to try to stem the bleeding. Wayne then got onto a boat he was accompanied by Sharon, the camp Manageress, who took care of Wayne and made sure the bleeding was under control, the boat trip was a fifty minute ride up the Zambezi River to Kanyemba in Zimbabwe. Simon was waiting with a vehicle to take Wayne to the air strip. They took off at approx five thirty in the evening, re fuelled in Kariba at last light using oil lamps on the run way to take off. They landed in Byo at eight that night, were Muffy was waiting with the Mars ambulance. Wayne was in casualty by eight thirty that night. Wayne has had two sets of surgery on his head and left hand at the Mater Dei Hospital, and whilst in a lot of pain is making a good recovery."
What an ordeal.....
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Well, we're up to 15 of these little adventures.
Though others talked about providing similar information to contradict the "danger factor", I haven't seen any of it.