Face reconstruction on rhino

Published May 3, 2016

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Sheree Bega

JOHANNESBURG: Dr Johan Marais dug deep into the gaping wound that was Hope’s face, his white gloves bloodied as he removed chunks of dead tissue. Almost casually, the equine and wildlife surgeon flung them on to the towels placed near his dusty boots.

Her eyes covered with blankets, her ears stuffed to keep the noise out, the world-famous rhino’s breathing was heavy and laboured as Marais probed inside her nasal passages to clean them out.

The drugs to keep the six-year-old rhino under had slowed down her heart rate, which Marais and his team of wildlife vets monitored closely. So far, so good, for the rhino that had become an international symbol of South Africa’s devastating poaching crisis.

Last May, poachers hacked off its entire face, for its horn, on an Eastern Cape game reserve. About 20 minutes into her latest procedure on a Limpopo reserve yesterday, Hope was brave, as with all procedures.

“It’s a good sign that she is standing,” said Suzanne Boswell Rudham, of Saving the Survivors. “It shows she is tolerating it well. She’s awesome.”

Marais, who helped start Saving the Survivors, a team of “surgical conservationists” blazing a medical trail for South Africa’s injured rhinos, explained that if Hope lay down for too long, her blood flow would stop.

“We’re going to stretch her skin, anchor it and that will draw her skin closer to close it,” said Chris du Plessis, of Surgitech, who works with Marais.

These “shoelaces on steroids”, from Canada, will create tension to pull the rhino’s face back together. A wound matrix with collagen will ultimately be placed inside the wound, for her cells to start growing together.

This procedure was called an “abdominal reapproximation anchor system”, used for patients who had undergone abdominal or stomach surgery. It used a crank and pulley system to unite the sides of the rhino’s wound.

“Normally, this is used to return muscles on the abdominal wall to where they’re supposed to be. Here, there’s nothing to return. Now, we’ll move from the sides towards the middle because the skin is completely off her face.”

Du Plessis contacted Saving the Survivors after reading of Hope’s plight. “They thought long and hard before they said yes. There’s zero data as far as animals are concerned for this.”

The Saving the Survivors team has in recent months used a steel plate, elephant skin and wire netting to try to protect Hope’s open wound from being attacked by maggots.

“But the biggest challenge we have with Hope is that she rips it off,” said Marais.

Still, her wound, which at first measured “one metre by half a metre”, had healed by 60 percent he said, declaring how proud he was of her strong, healthy appetite – a sign she was doing well.

The pair used scissors and surgical implements to pierce holes into her skin, which made a criss-crossed shape. Then, Du Plessis sprayed the wound with glue to seal it and protect it from bacteria. The team bandaged it and slung duct tape around her head.

“She’s a real ambassador for rhino poaching in the entire world. So many people know about the rhino issue because of Hope. We don’t know if this procedure is going to work, but we will try it.”

Every two weeks, the bands will have to be tightened.

After the procedure, and as Hope recovered, she returned to the “feisty” animal she was known to be, chasing Marais out of her enclosure.

Veterinary nurse Megan Sinclair said: “She shouldn’t have survived the wounds she has – she’s a real fighter with an amazing spirit.

“There are a lot of rhinos with less extensive wounds that have died. I think there’s something special and unique within Hope that she wants to live. You can’t deny her that.”

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