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Walter Nyamukondiwa-Kariba Bureau

For Mr Alexander Chimedza, the Kariba man who survived a vicious crocodile attack early this year, the turn of events in recent days reads like a fairy-tale as he starts the painful process of learning to walk again and lift his hand. 

After suffering broken limbs, including a severed Achilles tendon, multiple broken bones and trauma, Mr Chimedza was bed-ridden for the past five months, relying on his wife and well-wishers for everything.

Being alive was a miracle which he savoured, but found it inconceivable that he would be able to stand up and walk again one day.

So bad was the situation that he had to be lifted and moved from one place to another and helped to relieve himself as his left limbs were too weak to support the whole body.

“I cannot even imagine myself walking again because of the intensity of the injuries,” he said in an interview. “Look at how I am now. I only thank God that I am still alive. I leave the rest to God.”

But something defying the doubts that he had when all seemed gloomy happened in the past week when Mr Chimedza managed to take the first steps with the aid of a crutch. 

Leveraging on a wall, he managed to stand up from the floor and walk with a heavy limp.

Slowly, with measured determination, Mr Chimedza has been able to walk around his yard before one day gaining confidence to cover a distance of about 150 metres along a street.

That it took him nearly two hours to cover the distance speaks volumes about his high levels of determination and a desire to fully recover and start fending for his family again. 

“I was able to walk for the first time this week with the aid of this crutch. I have been making rounds around the yard before, today I pushed myself to walk down the road and back,” remarked Mr Chimedza with a measure of satisfaction.

So ecstatic was Mr Chimedza about his progress and achievement that he could not wait to demonstrate his newly found mobility.

The progress has been partly due to four reconstructive operations by surgeons to fix his torn Achilles tendon, remove a crocodile tooth stuck in his leg and realign broken bones that he underwent when he was admitted in hospital for 40 days. 

He also underwent delicate skin grafting and installation of metal plates to assist healing.

Despite making all this progress he still has to go for review and two surgeries after failing to raise about US$250 for transport and admission at Mutendere Hospital in Zambia.

Mr Chimedza has a dislocated knee and a protruding tendon which doctors have to operate on to fix it.

His right hand which was broken on two parts and dislocated at the shoulder as a crocodile did a death roll remains weak, but he can now make belaboured attempts to raise it.

The hand cannot hold anything at the moment. Muscles on the affected right leg can now move, but it cannot move independently while the unaffected left leg has grown weak owing to being bedridden. 

“I suffer excruciating pain on my right leg, especially at night, that I struggle to sleep,” said Mr Chimedza. “There is this protruding tendon which causes a lot of pain. It needs to be operated on and fixed. My right leg is dislocated on the knee area and may need pulling or other procedures as may be determined by the doctors. I have been unable to raise money for the review until the dates lapsed.” 

Mr Chimedza remains hopeful that one day he would be able to raise the required amounts and further boost his chances of completing a remarkable recovery.

Rarely do prey escape from the jaws of the crocodile, let alone four crocodiles as Mr Chimedza experienced.

His welfare and that of his family remains dire as he has to rely on well-wishers for food and other requirements.

“Of late, my wife has been selling second hand clothes, but they are few and you can go for a day or two without anyone buying anything and yet people have to eat. So people from church and other well-wishers have been helping out in whatever way they can,” he said.

Mr Chimedza’s survival was a miracle.

In January, he went to Nyamhunga Sewage Ponds in Kariba to get some worms for a fishing expedition.

Unbeknown to him, crocodiles had laid an ambush and within a few minutes, he instinctively had to evade a lunge from one of the crocodiles in the pervading water hyacinth weeds.

“As soon as I avoided being grabbed on the left hand, I felt another crocodile grabbing my right hand,” said Mr Chimedza. “It pulled me into the water and twisted in one direction and at that point I realised that my hand would break if I resisted. So I allowed my hand to go in the direction it turned.”

Mr Chimedza endured a gruelling 30-minute battle for survival that blunted the piercing and tearing jaws of four crocodiles.

He was rescued by passers-by who pelted the crocodiles with stones while one of them extended a stick which was used to pull him out of the pond.

The heavily bleeding man was taken to Kariba District Hospital before he was taken to Mutendere Hospital in Zambia where he stayed for 40 days.