Pretoria - More than a week after surviving a crocodile attack, Jody Saunders discovered part of a croc’s tooth had lodged in his head.
Last Wednesday, doctors removed the tooth and Saunders now plans to turn it into a keepsake neckpiece.
Saunders, 37, a diver employed by SA Diving Contractors, was doing maintenance work on the Rust de Winter Dam north-east of Pretoria when he was attacked by a crocodile.
Saunders said it had been the end of the work day. He had taken off his diving gear and was about to get out of the water when his colleague asked him to take one last measurement.
Just as he finished, he felt enormous pressure around his head and everything went dark.
He said he realised his head was in the jaws of a crocodile.
Instead of panicking he put his hands in the croc’s mouth and struggled until it released him.
He felt very fortunate to get away with only a few injuries; three fingers were hurt and he needed stitches in his head and has to wear a brace on this neck.
“There was a bit of irritation on my head and I went to the doctor to have it checked out. He then told me that half of one of the crocodile’s teeth was stuck in my head. It was removed and they gave it to me. I am going to turn it into a necklace,” he said.
His company has finished the maintenance work at the dam and they have not seen the crocodile again. “We have been on the lookout for the crocodile but it did not come again. In the past days of work there, we always had someone on the lookout,” he said.
He cannot wait to go back into the water again. “I was just waiting for my injuries to heal before going back into the water. Our company has closed for the holidays and I can only dive next year. I might go diving in the ocean though,” he said.
Pretoria News