Komodo Dragon Attack: 83-Year-Old Indonesian Injured At Park

Komodo Dragon Attack: 83-Year-Old Indonesian Injured At Park

Elderly Woman attacked by Komodo Dragon

An 83 year old Indonesian woman was forced to use a broom to fight off a Komodo Dragon over six feet long, which bit her left hand; Indonesia’s Komodo National Park officials identified the elderly woman only as Haifha who lives on Rinca Island.

Reports claim Haifha was attacked close to her home and was forced to hit the huge monitor lizard on the nose a number of times to force it to release its venomous bite.

Hearing her screams a number of Haifha’s neighbors rushed to her aid and ushered the Komodo Dragon away.

“All of a sudden, a Komodo bit my right hand,” she told AFP from her bed in hospital where she has been receiving treatment since the attack. “I have no idea which direction it came from.”

“A knife fell from my right hand as the Komodo sunk its teeth into my wrist. There was nobody else around and I knew that I faced a fight for survival.”

Haifha required 20 stitches to repair her hand and has not reported any adverse effects to the strong venom of the Komodo Dragon.

“I’m doing fine now. I hope my hand will return to normal so that I can make brooms again,” she said, adding limited movement had returned to her hand after it was initially paralysed.

A member of the monitor lizard family Komodo Dragon’s can grow to more than ten feet in length making them the largest lizard living on land; Komodo Dragon’s usually feed on deer.

Komodo dragons are also known for having special poison glands that can paralyze and temporarily shock their prey before they consume it.

Previous Komodo dragon attacks: 

• June 2, 2007

A Komodo dragon mauls a 9-year-old local boy to death near a village in Komodo National Park in West Manggarai regency. Police say the giant lizard appeared suddenly and attacked Mansur while he and two friends were in a wilderness area not far from the village on Komodo island. “The Komodo seized the 9-year-old in its jaws, tossed him around and released him only once other villagers started to throw stones,” West Manggarai Police chief Butje Hello says.

• March 23, 2009

Two Komodo dragons maul a fruit-picker to death in the eastern province of East Nusa Tenggara, police and witnesses say. Police Sgt. Kosmas Jalang says 31-year-old Muhamad Anwar was attacked on Komodo, one of four islands where the giant reptile is found in the wild, minutes after falling out of a sugar-apple tree. He bleeds badly from bites to his hands, body, legs and neck after two lizards, waiting below, attack him, according to neighbor Theresia Tawa. He dies at a clinic on the neighboring island of Flores soon after.

• Feb. 22, 2010

A Komodo dragon at a national park in West Manggarai attacks a park employee, who sustains serious injuries. Witnesses say Marselinus Subanghadir, a PT Putera Naga Komodo security warden, suffered severe wounds on his right foot.

• May 22, 2010

A construction worker on Rinca Island is attacked by a Komodo dragon, but manages to save himself though he sustains bites on his right shoulder.

The victim, Agustinus Jenaru, 20, is bitten by the giant lizard as he peels onions at his elevated house.

The Komodo dragon had stealthily entered the house and suddenly jumped onto the victim, throwing him to the floor.

On The Web:

Indonesian woman, 83, fights off Komodo dragon attack with a broom
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/indonesia/9982056/Indonesian-woman-83-fights-off-Komodo-dragon-attack-with-a-broom.html

Indonesian, 83, survives Komodo dragon attack
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/indonesian-83-survives-komodo-dragon-attack-064547578.html#UniR8yW

Komodo Dragon Attack: 83-Year-Old Indonesian Woman Fights for Her Life (VIDEO)
http://global.christianpost.com/news/komodo-dragon-attack-83-year-old-indonesian-woman-fights-for-her-life-video-93708/#DCpDGbuJrRz8kr0x.99

Elderly woman survives Komodo dragon attack by fending off the giant lizard with a broom
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/11/83-year-old-woman-fights-off-komodo-dragon-attack-with-a-broom/