A company director from south Warwickshire has described the terrifying moment he survived a hippo attack, after being trapped in its jaws, dragged underwater and then tossed into the air.
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00:00I'm Roland Cherry aka Hippo Man and I'm Shirley Cherry also known as Hippo Man's wife.
00:08So we were on a trip in Zambia. We'd been on part of a five-week trip which is a bit of a
00:16trip of a lifetime and we were on that particular day on an organized canoe safari on the Kofui
00:23River in Zambia. The Kofui is a tributary of the Zambezi River and we were due to do a full day
00:31tour of a canoe trip down the rivers, camp on an island and then carry on the next day
00:39but it didn't work out quite like that. So we'd only just left the camp five minutes before about
00:45100 meters or so and then there was a most almighty bang and the next minute our canoe
00:53was capsized. It was literally launched into the air virtually nose first. I was catapulted out
01:00into the water as was Roland and unfortunately the canoe slammed into his shoulder dislocating it
01:06and it takes you a minute to what a couple of seconds to process what's happened here
01:11and that you find yourself in the water and then suddenly think oh my goodness what's in
01:16the water with me and there's a sense of sheer terror but I was fortunate I was able to swim
01:22to the bank and looked around and I couldn't see my dear husband anywhere and I couldn't swim. So
01:27obviously this shoulder was dislocated so I was arrived in the water in a lot of pain thinking
01:34oh dear this is not good but I was conscious that I had to try and get to the bank because
01:41that's where safety was so I tried to swim one armed sort of doggy paddle which was never going
01:47to end very well and I don't and the next thing I consciously remember is being grabbed in the
01:54jaws of something from underneath and then being dragged down. I remember vividly being dragged
02:00down thinking oh no and I kind of knew what it was but I thought oh this is a terrible way to go
02:06and I really thought that was me curtains that was it all over and it took me down to the bottom
02:11of the river and then let me go and my life vest which fortunately was you know the right size and
02:19was fitted and done up properly was dragging me back up to the surface and weirdly I started
02:25counting and I sort of got to eight nine and ten and I got to the surface and I remember thinking
02:31that's really quite deep isn't it and I took a gulp of air I'm pretty traumatized obviously by
02:38this stage and then the hippo came and grabbed me again and then threw me through the air
02:45apparently to two meters out of the air so one of the eyewitness accounts said but towards the bank
02:50yeah I remember arms friendly arms grabbing me and pulling me back to the bank and then I was
02:55kind of bundled into this motorboat and I remember consciously that I had to remain conscious
03:01otherwise I was worried that if I slipped unconscious whether I'd actually wake up again
03:05the driver at the minibus said let's take him straight to the intender mission hospital which
03:11was only a kilometer up the road and they took me there which is a decision that probably saved my
03:17life because they got me in there on a stretcher and they took one look at me and said Mr Cherry
03:24you're in a very bad way we're going to operate on you now. Finally ended up at this clinic and it
03:29was another about 30 hours before a plane came to airlift us out to Johannesburg but the plastic
03:36surgeon Dr Venter came to see me that afternoon after she'd spent the first four hours on the
03:41operation and she said Mr Cherry somebody upstairs doesn't think your time on this earth is finished
03:49just yet and I looked and said well what do you mean she said well put it this way you weren't
03:53lucky once you weren't lucky twice you were lucky three times she said if any of those wounds in
03:59your thighs or your knee or your abdomen had been four or five mil deeper you would have lost one or
04:06both of your legs and the wound in your abdomen we probably couldn't have saved you.