'I was just pushing and kicking': Bride speaks about crocodile attack that happened before wedding
A woman who lost her arm in a terrifying crocodile attack days before her wedding was determined to go on with the ceremony despite the harrowing ordeal.
Zanele Ndlovu was canoeing with then-fiance Jamie Fox on Africa’s 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,” Ms Ndlovu, 25, who was dragged under the water and bitten on her right arm and left hand, said.
“Eventually one of the tour guides managed to pull me out of the water and get me onto one of their canoes.”
A guide then applied a tourniquet to her injured arm, which stemmed the bleeding while help was called.
Ms Ndlovu was then airlifted to hospital in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo.
She responded so well to treatment that doctors gave the all clear 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,” Ms Ndlovu – who has been with 27-year-old British husband Jamie, from Orpington in Kent, for 18 months – said.
They plan to settle in the UK once Ms Ndlovu has her visa – and a fully functioning prosthetic arm is also on their agenda.
