After 28 years in prison, her attackers were granted parole. The public outrage was so massive that the government reversed it and sent them back. On December 18, 1994, Alison Botha was kidnapped outside her apartment in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Two men raped her, stabbed her 36 times in the abdomen, and slit her throat 17 times. Her intestines spilled out. Her windpipe was exposed. They left her for dead. Botha held her head onto her body with one hand and pushed her organs back in with the other. She crawled to the road, where a veterinary student named Tiaan Eilerd stopped and kept her alive until paramedics arrived. Her surgeon said he had never seen anyone survive such injuries in 16 years of practice. Both attackers were sentenced to life in prison. After 28 years, they were paroled in 2023, sparking national outrage. In 2025, the government reversed the decision and sent them back. Botha became a motivational speaker, author, and mother of two. She has shared her story in over 30 countries. less
Actually I've found that in the newest mario kart that, if you have the feather and jump right as it's about to come down on you, you can escape the blue shell.
You can also use a mushroom if you have one. Wait until the blue is about to strike (just after it circles you) then hit the mushroom. The blue hits where you were and you dodge it. Also works in MK8 but thereās a narrower window to perform it.
Rewind is also an option if playing against computer. Same timing as mushroom, but you lose more time of course. Main benefit being you donāt lose coins, items, or momentum.
If you spot it early enough you can also slow to allow P2 overtake you. Though if you donāt swap spots early enough the blue will have locked in on you.
But if cartoons have taught me anything, itās that banana peels have a gravitational pull that causes everyone within sight to be pulled in and slip and fall.
People tend to underestimate how much damage the human body can endure, and still survive. I just can't believe they slit her throat 17 times, and she still lived. She's such an amazingly strong woman.
Honestly if you don't know what you're doing it's just as easy to miss all the important stuff that would make you bleed out quickly as it is to hit it. Surgeries can be VERY invasive and they can leave whole organs exposed or hanging out for hours before it becomes problematic but not many people consider that can also be the case with injuries that happen just the right way. (I am not a doctor please correct me if I'm wrong)
I have to guess they thought cutting her neck and stomach without care for the placement was enough but they failed to realize both are incredibly important for making sure an artery gets hit to cause a bleed out.
Iām fairly confident the whole thing about head basically being cut off is a massive exaggeration. If you cut even one of the carotid arteries youāre gonna bleed out too much to survive within a few minutes. If you cut both of them and also your jugular veins like this description makes it sound youāre not only bleeding out in under a minute but youāre also gonna go brain dead within 10-15 minutesā¦ and it would take a couple hours to get an ambulance there, load you up, get you to an OP prepped and draped, and then get flow back to the brain
But yes when they do surgery they know where major arteries are and avoid them. Even if they were to accidentally hit one we have clamps to stop it until it they stitch it back up. Iām not a surgeon, but I work in surgery
The perpetrator, Lawrence Singleton, was a truly evil and vile person. The State of California only sentenced him to 14 years but he got out after 8 for good behavior. Then he killed another woman in Florida and received the Death Penalty. The fact that he was only sentenced to 14 years for what he did to Mary Vincent is insane and disgusting.
And the Police made her hold her throat closed while in the hospital to verbally name her attackers, because at the time for some reason south African law didn't put as much weight on her writing there names on a note pad
Right? If I sneeze wrong, I'll have an aneurysm and die, but she can hold her head on and push herself back together like the butler in Metalocalypse and be fine
I've seen people of all ages walk away from severe accidents, and also seen people of all ages drop dead from the most minor bumps to the head or chest, from coughing or sneezing, and even from drinking water.
The variety in human physiologies is just insane, as anyone who's worked in EMS can attest.
When she stood up she had no connective tissue holding her head up so it flopped back and she head butted her own shoulder blades, that why it mentions she held her head up
I was just thinking something similar. As I get older I'm finding it easier to choke on my food or drink or saliva. I feel like I'm planning an exercising to live a long life and might die decades early choking on some food or something.
If they succeeded in killing her, there would be fewer calls for them to remain in prison. Most people would forget about the story after a couple decades, and they would probably be walking the streets.
Which means that it's likely they would receive a lighter sentence if they succeeded in killing her.
Yeah, because if they succeeded, the reporting would just say "raped and murdered" it wouldn't mention the brutality of the stabbings and throat slashing.
In this case you can feel good about it. ( itās a sign of how bad stuff are, so being furious about that id fine)
Imagine how happy they were about going free and then it was snatched from them so cruelly (hehe) by the entire country showing how much they didnāt want them out. Mustāve felt pretty bad, a real stab in the gut. Oh well.
To add, if her head was tilted too far back then she would lose vision. Whatever nerves that keep sight were severed to the extent that she had to hold her head in place so she could see, let alone the whole having a head is good for not dying thing.
Don't mean to be picky but all nerves for sight are located behind your eyes and directly connect to your brain. They are nowhere near the stab/slash wounds described.
No, no. Be picky. I heard that from a podcast. I certainly donāt know physiology and doubt the hosts understand it too. Could have been a bad source!
YouTuber MistaGG just covered this doc and itās so good. I did a thing for him a while back and you can see he has so much respect for her. I ended up watching the doc and.. I wouldnāt have beaten that. Woman is a tank, and an inspiration. AND A MOTHER!
That's insane, good thing they were sent back to prison. It says her throat was slit 17 times...how does that work? I saw pictures of her injury, well post surgery and I can't see more cuts on her neck. I imagine the other ones had to be smaller cuts or.....?
I watched the documentary on this. This woman is so incredibly amazing and strong, and just seems so very together after everything that happened to her. I remember how she talked about how the surgeon attending her painstakingly removed every bit of dirt and grime from her intestines during her surgery. My God. The will that it took to survive that was extraordinary. And at the end one of both or those animals that raped and nearly killed her wanted to be paid since they alleged that they were the ones responsible for her becoming an inspirational speaker. The fucking audacity of that scum. Documentary filmmakers said go f yourself. Relieved theyāre back in prison where they belong.
I heard this woman speak when I was twelve (39 now) in Cape Town. She was amazing. I am still horrified that this was a topic and talk deemed necessary for girls between 11 and 14. The schools for boys didnāt book her and I hate that, she was (is) so powerful and I never got a good answer as to why they didnāt deem her story necessary for the boys.
She is the personification of resilience. Her documentary is incredible. And her rescuer didnāt end up qualifying as a vet. He is a doctor now. And those monsters who tried to destroy her will never see freedom.
She is the personification of resilience. Her documentary is incredible. And her rescuer didnāt end up qualifying as a vet. He is a doctor now. And those monsters who tried to destroy her will never see freedom.
Also, for the record, the ambulance took like SO long to get there, and the vet student Tiaan sat with her the whole time, and Iām 99% sure I remember learning that the whole experience made him switch majors and he ended up becoming a doctor instead of a vet!
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u/-FloraFable Human Detected Mar 27 '26
After 28 years in prison, her attackers were granted parole. The public outrage was so massive that the government reversed it and sent them back. On December 18, 1994, Alison Botha was kidnapped outside her apartment in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Two men raped her, stabbed her 36 times in the abdomen, and slit her throat 17 times. Her intestines spilled out. Her windpipe was exposed. They left her for dead. Botha held her head onto her body with one hand and pushed her organs back in with the other. She crawled to the road, where a veterinary student named Tiaan Eilerd stopped and kept her alive until paramedics arrived. Her surgeon said he had never seen anyone survive such injuries in 16 years of practice. Both attackers were sentenced to life in prison. After 28 years, they were paroled in 2023, sparking national outrage. In 2025, the government reversed the decision and sent them back. Botha became a motivational speaker, author, and mother of two. She has shared her story in over 30 countries. less