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Faizel Patel – 25/06/2021

Plastic surgeons in South Africa are preparing to reconstruct the face of a nine-year-old Zimbabwean boy mauled by a hyena in an attack last month.

Rodwell Khomazana lost his nose, left eye, most of his upper lip, bits of his forehead and other parts of his face when he was attacked during a night-time church service outside Harare on 2 May.

Doctors in one of the city’s main public hospitals did the best they could to treat Khomazana and stabilise his condition, but lacked the specialist reconstructive surgeons and resources to fully repair his ravaged face.

Speaking to Radio Islam, renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Ridwan Mia who will be undertaking the mammoth task says Khomazana’s injuries are quite gruesome.

“The hyena has very powerful jaws and that’s quite obvious if you look at his injuries. So while he was asleep the hyena basically grabbed the middle part of his face and probably in an attempt to pick him up and drag him off.”

Dr. Mia says while different medical cases poses different risks, animals attacks and bites are more complicated and challenging to treat.

“The infectious risk posed by the mouth of the animal. There’s so many bacteria and viruses within the mouth of any animal and including human beings. Especially with a wild animal, we are not familiar with many of the bacteria, on a day-to-day basis we are not exposed to these bacteria as well. So one worries about particular resistant infections to the anti-biotics that we used to using.”

Dr. Mia says a number of specialist healthcare professionals have volunteered to help treat Khomazana.

“We had a number of organisations come to the party, we’ve been reaching out. From the medics side, very much all the practitioners have volunteered their time and their skills. Everybody is treating him pro bono which is a bonus. The Mediclinic Group has agreed to heavily discount the day-to-day costs, theatre costs and medication among other essentials.”

Dr. Mia says there critical operations and stages that lie ahead of Khomazana’s recovery starting with surgery this Saturday to reconstruct the various parts of his face.

Mia made history nearly ten years ago in 2012 when he performed the first cloned skin graft on burn victim Pippie Kruger in South Africa .

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Listen to the interview with Dr. Ridwan Mia