Crocodiles and land mines

You never know though what might come through the doors of Karanda Mission Hospital.

This guy came too close to a land mine.




The Mozambique border is not far to the north of us, and there are unfortunately many land mines remaining from the civil war in the late 1970s.


Recently a 16 year-old girl was brought to the theatre (surgery) with the report that she had been bitten by a crocodile. She was with her brothers using mosquito net to fish in a river when she was attacked. The report was that it was a small one, which is why she escaped.







The incident had actually happened the day before, so by the time she arrived to us her wounds were already infected, with pus and dead tissue that needed to be removed. The pictures above unfortunately don't do justice to the multitude of puncture wounds. We didn't count but guessed at around 50-60 that had to be cleaned out and packed, meaning we stuffed sterile gauze in the holes to allow the wounds to drain. She did have two puncture wounds on her face unfortunately, but they should heal if the infection can be controlled.