Drunk Dolores drowned in her bath at hotel

Dr Sam Williams with wife Katy and Finn, who live at the wildlife reserve THE wife and young son of a British scientist were fighting for life in hospital last night after an attack by a giraffe at a wildlife reserve in South Africa.

Dr Katy Williams, 35, and Finn, three, suffered “numerous serious injuries” 150 yards from their home. It is understood they may have startled the protective mother giraffe who felt her two-month-old calf was under threat.

Dr Sam Williams, 36, who was arriving home, stepped in to save his US-born wife and son and chased away the game park animals.

The victims were airlifted to hospital in Johannesburg and both were found to have life-threatening conditions. An operation was performed on the boy to release pressure on his brain.

His mother was also operated on and the pair were said to be in a stable condition but remained critically ill. The attack happened on Blyde wildlife estate near Hoedspruit, close to Kruger National Park, on Monday evening.

It is believed that the work at the reserve.

In a family statement, lawyer Marina Botha confirmed yesterday that several doctors had operated on Dr Katy Williams.

She said: “Dr Sam Williams would like to thank all doctors and medical personal from the hospital for their efforts to give his wife and son the best chance to heal.

“Both mother and son are still in a critical but stable condition.

“The family said that they have decided to take one day at a time and to remain positive.”

Dr Williams regarded the attack as an “unfortunate act of nature” couple where the giraffe saw his wife and son as a threat to her young one.

Wildlife estate manager Riaan Cilliers added: “We are all in shock about this very sad incident and we ensure the family that they are in our prayers”.

Earlier this year a cameraman on British TV show Wild At Heart was killed by a giraffe as he filmed at the Glen Afric game reserve in South Africa. Carlos Carvalho, 47, was headbutted and knocked 16ft through the air when the giraffe slammed into him and he died of injuries later in hospital. SINGER Dolores O’Riordan drowned in a bath after a drinking binge, an inquest heard yesterday.

The Cranberries star, 46, from Limerick in Ireland, was four times the drink-drive limit when she was found dead next door to her partner’s room at the five-star Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, central London.

The inquest – on what would have been the mother-of-three’s 47th birthday – was told she drank five miniature bottles of booze and champagne before falling “unconscious” in the early hours of January 15 this year.

A post-mortem examination also revealed an “above therapeutic amount” of a prescription drug in her blood but that was not said to have led to her drowning.

PC Natalie Smart said: “I saw Ms O’Riordan in the bath with her nose and mouth submerged in the water.”

Westminster coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said the singer’s death was a “tragic accident” despite evidence she considered taking her life months earlier.

Psychiatrist Seamus O’Ceallaigh, who treated Ms O’Riordan, said she had attempted to write a suicide note in September last year.

But the coroner said: “She saw her psychiatrist on January 9 and he found her to be in good spirits, no evidence of any psychiatric disturbances, no evidence of any thoughts of self-harm.”

Giving a ruling of accidental death, she said the star died from drowning and alcohol intoxication.