A pair is lucky to be alive after a automotive crash left them stranded in a distant a part of South Africa for 12 hours as hungry lions roared around their damaged vehicle.
Park ranger Mario Titus, 46, was rushing his wife Grace, 34, to a hospital greater than 100 miles away from their home in rural Mata Mata last September after she began suffering hypertension and shortness of breath.
While driving at midnight, Mario by chance veered off the road and collided with a tree, crushing the automotive and leaving Grace with six broken bones and cuts so deep that she looked like she’d “been bitten by a shark.”
The mom of three was trapped inside the auto, passing out and in of consciousness because of blood loss. The couple, who were still 12 miles from the hospital, had no cellphone service to call for help.
“My husband tried to assist me get out but he couldn’t and he desired to walk for help but I saw three lions on the road right before we crashed so we said if we needed to die, we might die together,” Grace harrowingly recalled in an interview with Kennedy News on Friday.
“It was terrifying. There have been noises from the lions roaring and I used to be passing out. I used to be in quite a lot of pain and weak from losing blood. After I heard the lions, I said to Mario ‘Oh no, we’re going to die now’. I believed the lions were going to come back, drag me from the automotive and eat me alive. I believed they’d smell the blood because I lost so much.”
Because the night dragged on, temperatures dropped, leaving the pair shivering contained in the crushed automotive.
“The one thing I used to be pondering of was my kids. I used to be pondering ‘I can’t die now. I even have to live, I even have children.’ We began praying that we were going to make it. It was very dark and cold, I prayed to God to warm my inner body,” Grace stated.
Mario added: “The side of the automotive where Grace was sitting was open. I do know there have been animals in the realm. We’re very fortunate that nothing happened by way of animals because I used to be anxious as to how I might keep hyenas or lions at bay. We could hear them roar they usually were close.”
The pair remained contained in the vehicle for 12 hours. Shortly after dawn, a driver of one other vehicle spotted the couple’s mangled automotive on the side of the distant road and stopped to assist.
The Good Samaritan rushed the pair to the hospital where Grace had a blood transfusion. She spent the following five months recovering on the medical facility as her wounds had turn into infected.
Doctors told Grace it was a miracle that she’d survived her injuries after spending 12 hours within the freezing cold.
“It was such a relief when help finally got here but then we realized the quantity of injuries that Grace had sustained and it was worrying,” Mario declared.
Grace added: “There have been 4 doctors within the town which was lucky. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have made it. I lost quite a lot of blood. I had a broken pelvis and leg and deep wounds under my breast and neck.
“It was a miracle that I survived,” she added. “The doctor said they didn’t think I might make it.”
Despite her extensive injuries and prolonged recovery, Grace is grateful to now finally be back home along with her children.
“I feel God has a purpose for me and it wasn’t my time to go,” she declared. “Each time I had a setback I pray to God to maintain me alive for my children. I can’t consider I used to be so strong.”
