Wayne Williamson has been mauled by a leopard while hunting in mozambique.
Below is an email from his wife:

Wayne spent three hours in theatre this afternoon, came out sore and shattered. His head looks like an axe murderer has mutilated it. He has a fractured bone in his left hand, they cannot set it as had to open it up to clean it - it is very swollen from that bad leopards nasty bacteria !!!!! His shoulder & left arm, hand are really not functioning at all. Had a cat scan yesterday the skull is not fractured thank God.

A French PH and his client wounded the leopard the night before, Wayne went in to help them. Wayne was crouching down when it came - it all happened very fast. The leopard hooked him on the right side of his head and pulled his head into its mouth. Wayne some how got his hand and arm into its mouth to try and get it to stop eating his head, Wayne managed to throw the leopard off and the french PH shot it. This all happened in Mozambique, Wayne wrapped up his head on his own, organised the others to get the vehicle, then set his GPS and walked to the vehicle on his own - the thought of that makes me sick, I can't believe they let him walk on his own (he was probably being very bossy). They drove back to camp, got him into a boat, flew to Kariba for fuel and they came into Byo.

For some bizarre reason Wayne wrote out all his medical aid details that am and gave them to the camp manager, he wrapped a towel around his left arm & duct taped it, he then put a leather glove on (he has never done that before) - that is the hand / arm that he shoved into the leopards mouth - the damage would have been far more severe without that protection. Wayne usually leaves his medical aid kit in the vehicle, he made his tracker carry it. The leopard literally scalped him, I cannot describe what his head looks like, no damage to his face or eyes.

I hope this e mail makes sense, I am exhausted and not thinking very clearly. We hope to get Wayne to JHB tomorrow. I told him you had e mailed and a tired little smile broke out, his eyes look so sad and shattered. But he is being very brave, he honestly makes more fuss when he has flu."

Be careful out there!

Best of luck to Wayne on a speedy recovery.
Will it be possible to let me know in which hospital he will be in JHB, I might be able to drop in.

An example of why PH's are underpaid.

Love them clients, eh?

I wish Wayne a speedy recovery. Ozhunter and I shared a camp with him in 2004 and he was great company.

It was only this morning I received an emailed update of how Wayne's season was progressing!!!

We were in camp with Wayne last September in Lemco, he is a fantastic PH.

Wayne and Muffy our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery.

wishing wayne a speedy speedy recovery.

Best of luck for a speedy recovery. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Best wishes to a brave man for a full and quick recovery.

I don't know Wayne, personally, but he is like every PH I've known in Africa, willing to go into the weeds with what ever needs sorting out, regardless of who's animal it is!

Get well Wayne, we got hunting to do!

I am sorry to hear about this. Wayne is an excellent guy and I wish him a speedy recovery.

Does this make you want to re-evaluate how much you tip your next PH?

465H&H

I don't know this Wayne, but he sounds like my kind of guy. Godbless and Godspeed from us in Texas.

My thoughts & Prayers are with you my friend, Muffy & family. Please keep us advised as to the status of his recovery. May GOD bless you in your time of need!

Wayne is in our small prayers. Brave man.

Thank Heavens he took the precautions he did!

It's hard to think someone is incredibly unlucky (attacked) and incredibly lucky (survived) at the same time but he was. Best wishes to Wayne for a full recovery.

My prayers goes out to you and your husband, it must be a terrible ordeal.

If there is anything, I can do once you are in Johannesburg please feel free to contact me.

Gerhard

wayne,
may God heal and bless you completely!!!

Please pass on all of our best wishes for his speedy recovery. I am sure that even if he does not know us he will feel the support that he has WORLDWIDE for his complete recovery in reading our posts.

Hang in there Wayne. All of us are thinking of you. You'll be back to work in no time!!

John

I suspect any of us who have hunted much have made a bad shot. I know I have.

My sympathies also go to the hunter who must feel rotten about this.

We had the pleasure of hunting with Wayne this past September in Lemco. Besides being a first rate PH he is an all around good guy. He was a blast to have in camp but when it came to hunting he was dead serious and the kind of PH who worked his ass off trying to get you the best trophy possible. I have emailed Muffy to let her know of all the well wishers on AR. Wayne will be up and running at full speed in no time. That is just the type of guy he is. Gods Speed Wayne ! Mike & Linda

Good wishes and God Bless Wayne with a speedy recovery.

I don't know Wayne, but I will say a prayer for his full recovery.

TerryR

Prayers sent for a speedy and complete recovery.

Mario

I met Wayne and his wife on my first Safari in Zim 2004. We stayed in their camp a couple of days as I was to kill a cow elephant for the tribal council in that area. They are good people. I hope he has a speedy recovery.

I'm really sorry to hear that. I hope he has a speedy recovery. I just returned from hunting leopard in Namibia, and saw first hand a leopard charge, stopped at 10 feet (no joke) by my PH. Chui is absolutely as fast as lightening.

Wow- a lot of damage done very quickly. I assume the other PH shot the catt off the victim within seconds.

On my lep hunt my PH said again and again leps usually don't kill you, they will scalp you and chew you up.

I hope the PH in question recovers quickly and that this will be his last hit from DG.

TRL,
Tell us more about your hunt!! I was in Namibia last year.

Best wishes to Wayne. Fortunately, the French PH could shoot. I think most of the PH's over there are more concerned about a well-meaning client shooting them while trying to dispatch the cat then they are about the mauling they are getting from the cat.

Wolfgar:

I'll try to post this weekend, once I get pictures. The hunt was using dogs through Classic Safaris.

Wishing you better tomorrows Wayne!

I got an email from Wayne yesterday telling me he is off on his last safari for the year - 18 day hunt for buff and bull ele.

He says he has recovered well from his encounter with chui, and has conducted a few hunts since he got out of hospital. Seems Mr Williamson is either one tough fella, extremely stubborn, or possibly both. I'd guess most people would do a bit more healing before going back to work!!!

Jim

Good news!!

Most long term PHs seem to carry "scratches" from leopard of varying degrees of severity.

Wayne was my PH last week and a Great Guy and has some Nice scars to show those cats are scary when wounded!

Are you sure this isnt from last years attack??
We hunted with Wayne in May at the Rifa area in Zim. The circumstances sound about the same.
He is certainly unfortunate if lightning has struck twice in the same spot. Chuck

quote:

Originally posted by chuck5656:
Are you sure this isnt from last years attack??
We hunted with Wayne in May at the Rifa area in Zim. The circumstances sound about the same.
He is certainly unfortunate if lightning has struck twice in the same spot. Chuck

The thread is from 2006. I think he just pulled it up beause he was hunting with the same PH mentioned in the thread. So I believe it is last year's incident.

Good to hear that he has recovered and is back in action.

Maybe prayers and good wishes from so many really do work....

That cats are really more dangerous that our pumas and jaguars ,..im glad that hes on the arena again.Juan