IMC Doctors Save Life of Woman Attacked by Hyena in Southern Sudan

Nyayual Rul had never been on a plane, nor traveled in a car. But when she needed life-saving surgery, IMC flew the 30-year-old woman from Walgak, a remote settlement in western Sudan, to Kajo Keji, a county 280 miles southwest of her home.

Nyayual had barely survived a hyena attack so vicious that nobody in Walgak could remember anything like it ever happening before.

Hyenas rarely hunt, but this animal was determined to prey on humans. It first injured two women before attacking, killing, and eating two young children. Then it turned on Nyayual who lives in a hut nearby. When the hyena finally let go of Nyayual, the mother of five was bleeding profusely from multiple injuries. It had bitten off one finger and injured another. It had ripped half of the woman’s scalp down to her neck and she had large gaping wounds on her shoulder and thigh. Her body was covered with scratches and bite marks.

The same night, Nyayual was brought to IMC’s clinic in Walgak, the sole medical facility in this isolated region that can be reached only by air. Here IMC and local staff usually deal with malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections; they hadn’t seen injuries as severe as these.

Dr. Justice Bazirake and John Dual, a nursing assistant trained by IMC, closed Nyayual’s scalp and dressed her wounds. She was given painkillers and antibiotics, but her condition worsened every day.

After three weeks, one of her remaining fingers became gangrenous and her head wound wasn’t healing properly.

“I think some of the tissue needs to be removed and maybe we need to amputate her fingers, “said Dr. Bazirake. “But this cannot be done in Walgak. We just don’t have the facilities, the personnel and the equipment.”

IMC decided to have Nyayual flown from its clinic in Walgak to the 160-bed Mundari hospital it runs in Kajo Keji. It is the only facility in a county with more than 160,000 residents that offers emergency surgery. IMC doctors, nurses, lab technologists, and public health specialists assist and train local staff to run the most vital healthcare institution in an area that has just begun to recover from decades of civil war.

The referral saved Nyayual’s life. Dr. Joseph Habimana and local nurses removed dead tissue from her wounds and are now waiting for her to become strong enough for surgery.

“We might be able to save her index finger and only amputate one of her middle fingers,” he explains, “She will survive.”

Nyalual, who had spent the flight to Kajo Keji motionless on a stretcher, is now sitting up in her hospital bed – recovering from her injuries and the trauma of the hyena attack. “It is OK, now,” she says, “I am better.”