Man left with eye injuries after 'dead' kangaroo springs to life

A Canberra man has undergone plastic surgery after he was attacked by what he thought was a dead kangaroo on the side of the road.

Billy Willox was driving along Googong Road, south of Queanbeyan on September 11 when he noticed a kangaroo on the ground.

Mr Willox’s partner Kerrie Vernables wrote on Facebook that he thought the roo was dead.

He wanted to check the kangaroo’s pouch for a joey in the hope of saving it.

However, the kangaroo was still alive.

“All of a sudden, it got up,” he told the ABC.

“Before I knew it, it had gone for my eyes. It was very, very quick.”

Ms Vernables added the kangaroo “went for his eyes only”.

Despite the blood pouring from his eyes he was able to get away from the marsupial and was rushed to Canberra Hospital.

His partner described his injuries as “gruesome” and all she could see were “two split eyes”.

The Canberra resident has had to undergo surgery to repair the skin around his eyes but has since returned to work.

Last month, an 18-year-old boy from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast leapt into action after he found a dead kangaroo on the side of the road and rescued its joey.

Quick-thinking Shiloh Leeke checked the roo’s pouch and found the orphaned joey inside – alive, but cold.

An Adelaide woman also rescued a tiny joey from a kangaroo’s pouch after finding the animal dead on the side of a road.

“It was quite obviously kicking in the tummy and I got out and had a look and saw two little feet sticking out of its pouch,” she told the Adelaide Advertiser.