Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve, Victoria Falls Reporter
A 22-year-old woman, Ms Shayna Peacock, has become a heroine in a dramatic rescue operation that saved the life of an American tourist from a hippopotamus attack at a Kariba resort on Saturday night.
The tourist, identified only as Mary, survived the brutal encounter but sustained severe injuries to both her legs and is receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of a private hospital in Harare.
The incident occurred around 9PM at Lomagundi Lakeside Resort in Kariba, where Ms Peacock and her friends were staying for a fishing tournament.
What began as a relaxed evening was shattered when a staff member alerted them to a grave incident.
“So, I will basically just start from the beginning,” Ms Peacock recounted to this reporter, narrating the ordeal with striking clarity.
“My group of friends and I were just chilling over, having some drinks, and listening to some music. Out of nowhere, one of the staffers from Lomagundi Lakeside came out and told us there is an incident involving a hippo.”
Initially, under the impression that someone was merely trapped, Ms Peacock said her instincts kicked in immediately.
She enlisted her friend, Mr Benjamin Ferreira, who has experience with wildlife, and they sped towards the scene in her car.
The reality they encountered was far more gruesome than they had anticipated.
“Driving up, the first thing I saw was the lady, her name is Mary. She was lying on the floor and there was this huge hippo,” said Ms Peacock.
“This male hippo was standing, maybe five metres away from her, just staring right at her. It was quite a horrifying sight to see – bone chilling,” she narrated.
“That’s when I realised what the situation really was and my adrenaline kicked in and I knew we had to get the hippo away from her as soon as possible.”
With Ferreira and a resort security guard armed only with a baton, they launched a desperate counter-offensive. They used the car, hooting and yelling, to distract the dreadful beast. It was Ferreira’s decisive action that broke the hippo’s focus.
“My friend Ben, got out of the car and got the really good idea. He picked up, it was sort of a rock, and he threw it in the direction of the hippo, and that seemed to snap the hippo out of whatever was going on in its head,” she said.
Seizing the critical moment, Ms Peacock expertly manoeuvred the car to create a physical barrier between the injured woman and the retreating hippo. While Ferreira and the guard stood watch, she rushed to Mary’s side.
“That is when I got out of the car and ran to Mary, who was still on the floor, not moving. I needed to check for vital signs, check for a pulse, check for any further damage, which was when she spoke to me,” Ms Peacock said.
She said she lay on the ground next to Mary, conducting a vital check and keeping her calm and conscious. Mary, though in severe pain from her legs, was remarkably composed.
“I think she was in a little bit of shock. I think honestly, when I got to her, I was in more of a panic than she was and when I realised she was so calm, I had to take a breath and compose myself so as to not stress her out even more,” Ms Peacock admitted.
While she provided comfort, other guests and staff rallied, organising an ambulance, which arrived within ten minutes.
She stayed with Mary until she was safely transported to a clinic in Kariba, before being transferred to Harare for advanced care.
“From what I saw at the scene, there was a toiletry bag on the floor. So, what I am assuming happened was she had gone to the bathroom to shower and on her way back to her camp, walked straight into the animal and that is when the hippo pounced and thrashed her around,” she said.
Despite her pivotal role, Ms Peacock remained humble, deflecting praise onto the collective effort.
“I lay on the floor with her the whole time, just comforting her, but really the heroes were the people who managed to get that ambulance there in a timely manner, in a calm manner,” she said.
ZimParks spokesperson, Mr Tinashe Farawo, could not confirm the incident by time of going for print.
