PROF CHRISTIAAN BARNARD: LEOPARD ATTACKS VAN RENSBURG
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From
Our Life, by Prof Christiaan Barnard and Curtis Bill Peper
(Howard and Timmins, Cape Town 1969)
I began to unpack, but before I could finish the phone rang two more times ... The second call was from a man at a distant farm, to say they were bringing in to the hospital a woman who had been clawed by a leopard.
"A leopard
- is the woman alive?"
"Ja but she's scratched up bad."
"When
will she get here?"
"In about forty minutes, maybe less. Her husband, Van Rensburg, just left
here with the truck" ...
Shortly after that, a truck arrived with Marie van Rensburg. She lay on a mattress in the bed of the truck with a blanket over her and next to her sat a young man who was her son. She had regained consciousness but was in shock from blood loss. Her dark blue flowerprint dress was ripped down the front and matted with blood.
We carried her into the emergency room [this occurred at Ceres], removed her clothes, cleaned the wounds and prepared for treatment. She was about sixty, yet had the rugged, muscular build of a farm woman who had chopped wood and carried immense burdens. Her body was cut and clawed in a way which could only have been caused by a beast, such as a leopard. There were some serious lacerations on the abdomen - fortunately non through the stomach wall. There were others on the chest, shoulders and even the neck. By some miracle her face had not been torn.
To alleviate her shock we gave plasma and injections. The I began to slowly sterilize and suture fifty-seven wounds. As I worked, I tried to figure out what had happened. No man could single-handedly fight and kill a leopard - not even this tough old lady. Besides, no one in their right mind would pick a fight with a beast many hunters fear more than the lion. Finally, after I had closed all the wounds and put the woman in a private room, the husband and son told me the story.
Their dogs had tracked the leopard to a cave and the son had gone there with a gun. From the barks and excitement of the dogs, he knew what was inside - the same leopard which had been killing their sheep. So he smoked it out, his father helping, until the leopard suddenly burst forth in leaps so high and long it never seemed to touch the ground Both men shot, hitting the animal in the neck and shoulder, but not enough to bring it down. So with the dogs behind, the wounded beast raced onward, looking for some refuge - down the canyon and toward the farm about a mile away.
Marie van Rensburg had spent the morning first in Bible reading with her husband and son, then making butter and kneading dough. After cutting some loaves into the oven, she heard the dogs coming toward the farm and barking wildly. She went to the kitchen door just as the leopard bounded into the farmyard. Weak from his wounds and lack of blood, the animal headed for the only possible refuge in sight - the kitchen.
Marie barely had time to recognize it as a leopard before it leaped. She met it there in the doorway - the beast which had killed her husband's sheep and now wanted to enter the kitchen where she was baking bread.
As the leopard landed on her, Marie fell backward with it on top, her powerful hands finding its throat while her legs hooked around the animal's lower half. In such a murderous embrace, the two rolled about on the kitchen floor, Marie driving her thumbs into the windpipe while the dogs snapped wildly at the leopard's tail and ears - until the animal went limp and expired just as Marie herself lost consciousness.
Mr van Rensburg and his son came running up, to be met first by the barking dogs racing out to them from the kitchen. Upon entering, they found Marie on the kitchen floor, unconscious yet still embracing the dead leopard.
After making sure the patient was resting well ... I found Mr van Rensburg waiting at the door to pay me. I told him there would be an eventual hospital fee for her bed and board - but none for the doctor. South Africa had been settled by people like the Van Rensburgs. I could no more accept money from them than I could charge my father or grandfather for services ..."
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Prof Barnard received his medical degree in 1946, and did his internship and residency at Groote Schuur Hospital and Peninsula Maternity. He then worked for two years, 1949 and 1950 as a general practitioner at Ceres, during which time this incident must have taken place.