I went into overdrive to fight off crocodile says British girl, 18
THE British public schoolgirl attacked by a crocodile on a gap year near Victoria Falls has described how she went into ‘overdrive’ to fight off the beast.
Speaking for the first time since her terrifying ordeal, Amelie Osborn-Smith, 18, said she was ‘very, very lucky’ to survive.
She also revealed that surgeons have been able to save her right foot, which she had ‘fully accepted’ she would lose.
The teenager had been white-water rafting when the 10ft reptile leapt up and clamped its jaws on to her leg.
Her quick-thinking friends then began punching and wrestling with the crocodile to tear her from its grip and stop her from being dragged into a ‘death roll’.
Speaking from her hospital bed in the Zambian capital Lusaka, Miss OsbornSmith said: ‘You don’t really think in that situation. People say you see your life flash before your eyes, but you don’t.
‘You just think, “How am I going to get out of this situation?” Your mind just goes into overdrive and you just think about how to get out. I was just very, very lucky.’
Miss Osborn-Smith, from the village of
Charlton, near Andover, Hampshire, has suffered frequent nightmares and flashbacks since the attack.
But she insisted she had no regrets and plans to return to Zambia once she has made a full recovery.
‘I have seen that your life can be over so quickly,’ she told The Sun.
‘If you live thinking you’re going to regret everything you’re never going to have a fulfilled life. I always think don’t let one incident hold you back.’
Her father Brent Osborn-Smith, 60, an osteopath and major in the Army reserves, revealed that her foot was left ‘hanging loose’ after the attack last Tuesday.
He said: ‘Although still very shocked and suffering from frequent flashbacks and nightmares, Amelie remains calm, upbeat and brave.
‘She feels extremely grateful for the excellent treatment that she has been given.’
Miss Osborn-Smith had been spending her time abroad on her grandmother’s farm in Zambia after leaving £22,000-a-year St Swithun’s boarding school in Winchester in the summer.
She said: ‘When the accident happened I fully accepted the fact I was going to lose my foot. I said to all my friends, “It’s fine, I have lost my foot, I am still alive.”’
After the attack she was first flown by helicopter to nearby Livingstone and then on to Lusaka 240 miles away, where surgeons operated to save her foot.
Miss Osborn-Smith said: ‘I was told that my foot’s going to be fine, that I will be able to walk and it’s just such a relief.’
Her grandmother camped at her hospital bedside as her parents were unable to fly out because of Covid restrictions. She will now be treated back in Britain.