Paul Templer: Man Recalls Being Swallowed By A Hippo, Near Death Experience At The Zambezi River, Near Victoria Falls, In 1996

Paul Templer, 27, recalled being swallowed by a hippo while he was working as a river guide at the Zambezi river, near Victoria Falls, near the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia last week in The Guardian's 'Experience.'

Templer now lives in Michigan and he wrote about his 1996, near-death experience in The Guardian's 'Experience,' according to Newsoxy.

He explained that he and the hippo had met a number of times before the incident and, in the past, it had attempted at a minor forms of attack due to its territorial nature, the Guardian reports.  

Hippos are common above the falls, PBS reports, according to the Huffington Post.  They can weigh up to 8,000 pounds, are fast sprinters, strong swimmers and can hold their breath for several minutes.

On the day of the incident, Templer was taking a client, named Evans, out on an apprenticeship guide by kayak and the attack came out of nowhere.  "The solid whack I felt behind me took my by surprise," Templer told the Guardian.  

His first instinct was the safety of the people on the tour, the Guardian reports.  Evans had been flung out of his boat after being lifted out of the water on the back of a huge hippo.  He made sure that everyone was guided to safety and then raced to help Evans.  Just as he was reaching his hand out to help him, everything went dark.

"There was no transition at all, no sense of approaching danger. It was as if I had suddenly gone blind and deaf," Paul Templer recalled, according to UPI. "I was aware that my legs were surrounded by water, but my top half was almost dry. I seemed to be trapped in something slimy."

In addition, Templer remembers a terrible smell that was sulfurous, like rotten eggs, and a strong pressure on his chest, the Huffington Post reports.  "My arms were trapped but I managed to free one hand and felt around - my palm passed through the wiry bristles of the hippo's snout. It was only then that I realized I was underwater, trapped up to my waist in his mouth," he told the Guardian.

Templer finally escaped by wiggling as hard as he could, however, the hippo attacked again, the Guardian reports.  This time, the hippo took him down to the bottom of the water, about 10 feet bellow the surface.  He said that he was "wondering which of us could hold his breath the longest. Blood rose from my body in clouds, and a sense of resignation overwhelmed me. I've no idea how long we stayed under - time passes very slowly when you're in a hippo's mouth."

All of a sudden, the hippo lurched toward the surface and spit Templer out, the Guardian reports.  A colleague, named Mike, had waited for him and helped to paddle him to safety.

"I was a mess," Templer told the Guardian.  "My left arm was crushed to a pulp, blood poured from the wounds in my chest and when he examined my back, Mike discovered a wound so savage that my lung was visible."  The hippo had huge tusks, slicing incisors and a ton of small checking teeth and '"a doctor later counted almost 40 puncture wounds and bite marks on my body," Templer said.

Mike, who knew first aid, was able to seal the wounds in Templer's chest with the wrapper from a snack tray in order to keep his lungs from collapsing, the Guardian reports.  A medical team happened to be nearby on emergency drill as well and they helped keep him alive long enough to reach the hospital.  "In the end, I lost only my left arm - they managed to patch up the rest," Templer said.

Evans was not as lucky as Templer, the Guardian reports, and attempts were mad to try to find and kill the rogue animal.  Although the hippo was never found, Templer said the he believes that he and the hippo met again once more.  "Two years later I led an expedition down the Zambezi and as we drifted past the stretch where the attack had taken place, a huge hippo lurched out of the water next to my canoe. I screamed so loudly that those with me said they'd never heard anything like it. He dived back under and was never seen again. I'd bet my life savings it was the same hippo, determined to have the final word," he said.