It was found inside a hippo’s mouth, up to the waist – and lived to tell about it

Paul Templar will never forget the day the hippopotamus stroked him. He suddenly found himself halfway inside the monster’s mouth. And not just once. But he came out of this amazing adventure alive.

He was 28 years old and works as a guide for tour groups on a photo safari in Zimbabwe. All was going well, until he had a “really bad day at work,” as he describes the nasty attack he’s had Hippopotamus.

On March 9, 1996, Paul Templar learned that one of his close friends, who was going to accompany a group to the Zambezi River, had malaria. So, At the last minute, he decided to replace it. “I loved that part of the river. It was an area that I know like the back of my hand,” he explained to CNN.

The group consisted of six customers – four Air France crew members and two Germans – three trainee drivers and a Templar. They boarded three canoes, the agents in the first two seats and a guide behind them in each. The third apprentice was alone in the canoe.

Everything was going well and at one point they came to a place with about 10 hippos, which is to be expected on the Zambezi. They weren’t worried at first, since they were at a safe distance, but Templar decided to avoid the animals.

How did she end up in the middle of a hippo’s mouth

He was in front and after entering a small channel, he waited for the others. But the third canoe was left behind. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise. I saw the boat pull off, and Evans, the driver in the back, got kicked out.He described it. The agents somehow managed to stay in the dinghy.

“The current swept Evans towards the mother hippopotamus and her calf about 150 meters away. I knew I had to get him out of the water quickly.” He shouts out to Ben, the other trained guide, to take the clients to a rock in the middle of the river where hippos can’t climb.

Templar turned his canoe towards Evans to get close to him and pull him out of the water. “I was paddling and approaching him when I saw a wave coming towards me. Like a torpedo approaching a ship in an old movie. I knew it was either a hippopotamus or a huge crocodile coming at me.” The Templar hit the water with his bat, which he knew drove the animals away, and the oncoming wave stopped.

When he got to where Evans was, he bent over to grab him and almost made it, when “the water broke between us.” It happened so fast, I didn’t see a thing. Everything darkened and became strangely quiet.”

It took him a few seconds to realize what was going on. “From the waist down I felt water. I felt like I was wet. From the waist up, it was different. It was warm and I wasn’t wet from the river, but I wasn’t dry either. And I felt incredible pressure in my lower back. I tried to move and couldn’t.” I realized I was halfway up the hippo’s neckhe said characteristically.

The second hippo attack

It is worth noting that hippos can reach 5 meters in length, 1.6 meters in height, and weigh up to 4.5 tons, according to National Geographic. They open their powerful mouths up to 150 degrees and their fangs can reach 51 cm. The bite of a hippopotamus is three times stronger than that of a lion. A hippopotamus can cut a human body into two parts with one bite.

“I think I would have slid into his neck that it might have been uncomfortable, because Spit in my face. So I jumped to the roof, filled my lungs with air, and came face to face with Evans. I told him, ‘We have to get out of here,'” Tumblr continued with the description.

But Evans was in trouble and Templar swam again when he was hit from under him. “I was neck-deep in the hippopotamus again. This time, though, my feet were trapped, but my hands were free.”

He tried to reach his gun, but he couldn’t. Finally, the hippo spit it out again. This time, when I surfaced, There was no sign of Evans». Thus, Templar assumed the other man had been spared and tried to escape himself.

“I was swimming when you looked at my arm and– I will not forget her until I die– I saw a hippopotamus approaching me, its mouth wide open, before it could deliver a blow. This time, it was sideways in the hippo’s mouth. His legs were hanging on one side and his head and shoulders on the other.

“Hippos try to tear apart and destroy what they attack. Luckily for me, everything was happening in slow motion. So when I was underwater, I would hold my breath, and when we got out, I would take a deep breath and try to hold on to the teeth that were piercing me so they wouldn’t cut me in two,” he said. Tumblr. It was “like a vicious dog trying to unravel a rag doll,” as one member of the group later described it.

“I wish I was dead”

Templar estimates that the entire attack lasted about 3.5 minutes. Then one of the trained guides, risking his life, approached in the canoe and pulled him to the rock. There, Evans was reported missing. Finally, his body was found after 3 days and it was assumed that he had drowned, as there were no signs of animal attack.

Templar’s body was dismembered. “My left leg was in really bad shape. It was like someone trying to open a hole with a hammer.” He could not move his arms and one elbow was deformed. He was bleeding from his mouth and they realized it The lung was punctured.

The trained guide put him in a canoe and carried him ashore, while the rescue team removed the rest from the rock. “The pain was more intense than I thought I could bear. It was so intense, I thought I was going to die. And when it didn’t somehow I wished to dieTumblr description.

After getting him out of the river they needed 8 hours to be transferred to the nearest hospital. Within a month he underwent back-to-back surgeries. He thought he would lose one leg and two arms. Surgeons thought he would not live.

In the end, the doctors saved not only his life, but also his legs and arm. He underwent treatment in Zimbabwe and Britain and got a prosthetic limb. In the end, he decided to focus on what he could do rather than on what he lost, he explains. The phrase his surgeon told him on the day Templar was having trouble handling his wheelchair played a decisive role in this. The doctor told him, “You are the sum of your choices.”

Therefore, he moved to the United States, got married, wrote a book and gave lectures. Despite what he’s been through, he doesn’t deter anyone who wants to go on a Zambezi River safari. “Go, but with someone who knows what they’re doing. Go test it out.”