Seal woman: 'Just walk away'
2005-11-02 08:46
Cape Town - A shocked Elsie van Tonder, who saw her mutilated nose for the first time on Tuesday, said she'd never again try and touch a wild animal.
A seal bit off the tip of her nose on Saturday when she tried to help the animal lying on the beach at Herold's Bay. The seal also bit her on the thigh.
"I feel hopeful after speaking to the doctor about my nose," van Tonder, 49, said from her hospital bed in Groote Schuur Hospital on Tuesday.
"I've learnt from this that one should never try to touch such animals. Rather walk away. This is what happens when you try to help," Van Tonder said while pointing to the large wound to her leg and softly stroking the bandages over her nose.
She and about 15 other patients were transported at about 04:00 on Tuesday morning from George to various hospitals in Cape Town. The trip took about six hours.
Very traumatic
Van Tonder said Professor Don Hudson, plastic surgeon at Groote Schuur, told her he'd take skin from her forehead and from behind her ear to graft onto her nose. The cartilage remaining in her nose is apparently enough so she won't need a transplant of cartilage as well.
She will undergo surgery on Thursday.
Van Tonder was shocked when she saw her nose wound for the first time on Tuesday after the doctor cleaned it up.
"He said I'd scar but as long as my nose heals, I don't care," she said.
Her sister, Liefie, will be flying down from Pretoria on Wednesday to support her.
Her sister found out about the accident only on Monday after seeing Van Tonder's mutilated face on television news.
Van Tonder's friend, Johan Viviers, and her daughter, Louise Ellis, will be travelling from George to Cape Town on Thursday to visit her in hospital.
Ellis said on Tuesday that her mother just had to be strong.
"We're joking with her that she'll now have a better nose than before," Ellis said but added immediately: "It was very traumatic to see my mother in such a state but it doesn't help to keep crying about it."