The woman who lost her arm in a terrifying crocodile attack days before her wedding has spoken of her ordeal.
Zanele Ndlovu was canoeing with then-fiance Jamie Fox on the Zambezi River on April 30 when a crocodile punctured their inflatable boat and pulled her into the water.
“I was just pushing and kicking and trying to fight the croc as much as I could,” said Zanele, 25, who was dragged under the water and bitten on her right arm and left hand.
“Eventually one of the tour guides managed to pull me out of the water and get me onto one of their canoes,” she added.
A guide then applied a tourniquet to her injured arm, which stemmed the bleeding while help was called.
Zanele was then airlifted to hospital in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo.
She responded so well to treatment that doctors gave the thumbs up for her wedding to go ahead as planned on May 5 – as long as it took place in their chapel.
“We didn’t see a reason to change our date so we went on with it,” said Zanele, who has been with husband Jamie, 27, from Orpington, Kent, for 18 months.
They plan to settle in Britain once Zanele has her visa – and a fully functioning prosthetic arm is also on their agenda.
A Zimbabwean woman lost her arm after a crocodile attack whilst holidaying with her fiancé wedded days later in a hospital chapel, state media reported Tuesday (May 8).
Zanele Ndlovu-Fox exchanged vows with her husband Jamie Fox in a hospital chapel before 60 guests in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city.
A picture in The Herald showed Ndlovu-Fox decked out in her white wedding gown with her remaining upper right limb covered in white bandage.
The lovers were canoeing along the Zambezi river, near the Victoria Falls, when they were attacked by a crocodile few days earlier.
“The crocodile just jumped out of the water and bit a chunk of my arm together with the side of the boat,” Ndlovu-Fox told the newspaper.
“The canoe started deflating and it all happened so fast. The crocodile bit me again and pulled me into the water. My husband was thrown out on the opposite side, so the boat was between us.”
She said her husband and their tour guides wrestled the crocodile which later released her before she was airlifted to a hospital by a helicopter where the crushed part of the arm was amputated.
Hospitalised, she walked up the aisle to wed Fox at the infirmary.
“I spent a lot of time preparing for my wedding day, running around for venue, decor and so forth. I didn’t know that fate would have me wed in a hospital chapel, with one limb missing,” she said.
Despite all this, “my wedding was the best,” Ndlovu-Fox said.
Her husband told the same newspaper that the crocodile attack strengthened their union.
“This incident actually made me feel the deep meaning in our vows. For the better or worse, in sickness and in health, that’s just how our love is going to be,” said Fox.
The couple is reportedly preparing to relocate to Britain soon.
(Daily Nation)
