A 12-year-old boy who was hospitalised after a terrifying kangaroo attack says the backyard was terrifying.
Phoenix Bond said the animal pinned him down for minutes before a neighbour heard his cries for help just in time.
“I just feel like pretty traumatised, really scared,” he told 9News.
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Bond was left with blood streaming from his head, and suffered a massive gash to his right thigh.
The 12-year-old was looking at a mob of roos in his backyard when a large male bounded towards him.
Bond tried to run away but slipped.
“The kangaroo came on me and it was like scratching my back and my head,” he said.
“It kind of felt like something was kind of like karate chopping me over and over.”
The Monday morning attack lasted a couple of minutes before a neighbour heard the 12-year-old’s screams for help.
“When I was on the ground, I was like ‘oh if no one gets out to me, I’m gonna be dead’,” he said.
Phoenix’s mum Sarah Doherty said she’s thankful the incident wasn’t worse and is grateful the neighbour heard her son.
“It could have got his neck, it could have got his face, it could have got an artery,” she said.
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“And because I was inside I would not have heard him if it wasn’t for our neighbour who heard him screaming out.”
Once confronted the roo hopped away.
Bond was rushed to the Austin hospital where he needed surgery on his head and leg.
“Because the gash on his leg was so deep – right down to the muscle – they had to do plastic surgery, so they couldn’t stitch it up right there,” Doherty said.
Bond will return to the hospital next week to get his stitches removed.
“I’m so lucky that it didn’t get deeper into my neck,” he said.
“One more minute and it got deeper into my head, you know it probably would’ve been over.”
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