Crocodile attack kills son, wounds woman

Dar es Salaam. It was on Saturday, February 17, at 5pm when Martha Malambi, 25, with her baby strapped to her back, walked down to River Mgeta at Ukutu Village, Mvomero District in Morogoro Region.

She was going to draw water from a river, a 30-minute walk away from her home to the water source. This was not her first time. She had gone there before countless times just like what her fellow villagers have been doing for years.

It was then that disaster struck. Her baby is now gone forever following a crocodile attack. Martha survived to tell the story.

“For many years, I have been fetching water from this river in our village but never heard if there were reports of crocodiles,’’ she unveils a story that most would liken to a horror movie. Many have been wondering just how she survived from the jaws of the dangerous reptile.

“In other villages far from where I live, people have reported seeing crocodiles but not in my village. That evening, when I went there to fetch water, it was like any other ordinary day,’’ she narrates.

“I remember to have stretched my legs slowly into the water as I stood on the riverbanks; throwing in the bucket to fetch the water as my baby was strapped to my back with a wrapper,” she recalls.

“But, no sooner had I started coming out of the water, that’s when I suddenly sensed something closing in on my legs. And, it grabbed me from the back, pulling my legs back into the river. It was a crocodile. Bigger than my size.”

“I yelled for help. No one was near,’’ says Martha, who is now admitted to the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) where she is nursing the deep injuries she sustained during her struggle to rescue herself and the baby from the jaws of the crocodile.

“The crocodile then jumped and fell on us. My baby fell off my back into the river. He started taking water. I could see him drowning, but my arms could not reach him,” she narrates as her voice shakes.

“The crocodile pulled me into deeper waters of the river, holding me by my right in its jaw. I fought it with my arms, trying to use my hands to free myself. But, I couldn’t. The teeth dug deeper into my flesh. Then, I don’t know how, I found myself close to the river bank,” further recalls Martha.

“It was at that moment that my hand got hold of some reeds by the river side. Meanwhile, I continued yelling for help. Some people heard me. About four youngmen showed up carrying various types of traditional weapons. This encouraged me to fight even harder for my life,” she said.

“As they attacked it with the weapons, the more it dug its teeth into my flesh as it tried to pull me away. So, I sustained deep injuries,” she said.

“But the young men continued beating the crocodile. They were soon joined by another woman. They beat it until released my leg. That was how I got out of its jaws,” says Martha, a peasant.

“What I can recall, from there, is that I was rushed to a nearby dispensary. They cleaned me up and gave me some first aid,’’ she tells The Citizen.

Treatment

Since then, Martha has been undergoing a series of treatment.

As she sat on her hospital bed at MOI in Dar es Salaam, narrating the ordeal, memories of her drowning baby overwhelm her.

“I have survived but my son David died,’’ said Martha, staring at her seriously injured right leg.

The leg was seriously severed from her thigh down to the toes. Without urgent intervention, the wounds could have ended up with serious infections and possibly causing death, according to specialists attending her.

Usually, experts say, bacteria living in crocodiles’ mouths can come from the intestines of other animals they ate earlier or from the water in which they live.

Martha was previously rushed to Morogoro Regional Referral Hospital for treatment after the incident.

However, doctors there advised that she should be treated at a specialided hospital in Dar es Salaam given the complicated nature of the wounds she sustained.

Having spent about two weeks in hospital, her right leg which was crushed by the crocodile is slowly healing, according to Dr Paul Marealle, a senior specialist in Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery at MOI.

“You see, the injuries caused by the bites of a crocodile often become infected. Bacteria can enter the body via the deep cuts from the crocodile’s teeth or from wounds occurring as the victim is trying to escape from the mouth of the crocodile,’’ said Dr Marealle in an interview with The Citizen.

Without treating these infections properly, the tissues in Martha’s leg could reach a stage of making it imperative to have the leg amputated.

The infection could also enter the bloodstream and spread to the rest of the body causing multiple organ failure and death.

Dr Marealle says, “When this patient arrived here, the first thing we did was to ensure that the wounds are thoroughly cleaned. We did what we call wound debridement. Without this procedure, her wound would heal very slowly or simply not heal at all, so it’s an important procedure,’’ he said.

There have been reports of sporadic attacks by crocodiles in Morogoro Region in recent years. Martha’s attack raises questions about the security of the residents as they walk several miles to fetch water.