Just a day after a man was headbutted by a giraffe, landing him in hospital in a serious condition, a woman was attacked by a vervet monkey.
The receptionist, employed by the parks department in Bloemfontein, had to undergo emergency surgery after being attacked at work on Wednesday.
The large monkey apparently escaped from the Bloemfontein zoo, which is adjacent to the parks department’s offices.
Tina Grobler was bitten so badly on her right arm that an artery near her thumb was severed, Beeld reported on Thursday.
A colleague, Hein Cohen, rushed Grobler to hospital, where she underwent surgery to repair severed tendons, damaged tissue and veins in her right arm.
Meanwhile, zoo employees managed to capture the monkey and return it to the zoo’s primate enclosure.
According to a MediClinic spokesperson, Grobler was in a stable condition.
On Tuesday a man was in left in a serious condition after he was headbutted by an adult giraffe outside Hammanskraal in Pretoria.
“Apparently the man had been trying to draw blood from the animal when it headbutted and pushed him up against the fence post,” said Netcare 911 spokesperson Jeffrey Wicks.
The incident happened at a wildlife quarantine facility. Wicks said the man (32) sustained serious spinal injuries and was airlifted to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria. — Sapa