May 7:
A British man has described the moment he desperately fought to save his fiancée as her arm was bitten off by a crocodile, five days before they got married.
Jamie Fox, 27, wed Zanele Ndlovu in a Zimbabwean hospital. “In one week we went from shock and agony to a truly amazing experience,” he said.
Fox and his then fiancée, Miss Ndlovu, 25, were canoeing in an inflatable boat on the Zambezi, one of Africa’s longest rivers, when they were attacked by a crocodile on April 30.
Fox managed to pull his fiancée, a former national tennis player, back out of the water and applied a makeshift tourniquet, but she had lost so much blood it was feared that she may die from the wound.
“I was shouting, trying to save her,” he said. “She was not complaining of pain when we managed to pull her out of the water, maybe because of the shock. We were hoping the doctors would save her arm but that was not to be.”
Miss Ndlovu was rushed to Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo but lost her right arm and suffered injuries to her left hand. Five days later, they married in the hospital chapel.
“We were glad we still had our lives and managed to keep our wedding date, although we had to do with a much smaller venue,” Mr. Fox added.
“The celebrations went ahead at the original venue but Zanele and I had to remain at the hospital.”
He described the wedding as “incredible”. The couple had dated for around 18 months before he proposed in February.
It is believed Mr. Fox’s mother, Jennette, 58, and his sister Sophie, 24, flew over from their home in Orpington, Kent, to attend the wedding.
“We are hoping to settle in the UK so we are sorting out her visa and then we will think of the honeymoon,” he added.
Miss Ndlovu was discharged from the hospital on Monday.
-Telegraph.co.uk