He did not realize a hippopotamus was under the muddy water when he put out his canoe today. Without warning the giant beast was churning waves toward him. Within seconds the hippo had him in its jaws.
He was struggling to breath in the stretcher there in front of me. His t-shirt was dripping in blood. The left chest was sunken, flailing as he inhaled.
I placed a chest tube and packed the wound. Air expelled from his chest cavity bubbled in our make-shift water seal. He breathed a bit more easily and his oxygen saturation’s improved. His low blood pressure resolved with the additional assistance of blood transfusions. He will have a rough road to recovery but should make it.
