Husband gouges crocodile's eyes to save wife

A man rescued his wife from the jaws of a crocodile in remote northern Australia by jumping on its head and poking its eyes.

Wendy Petherick, 36, was standing at the riverbank when a 2.5-meter (8ft) crocodile grabbed her leg and pulled her into the water. She pulled on its jaw to try to free herself as she shouted for her husband, Norm Moreen.



"Next thing Norm is in the water, jumped in and jumped on the croc's head and (was) feeling for his eyes," Wendy Petherick said. "He poked his eyes and the croc freed me, and Norm just pushed me toward the side of the bank and both of us just got out of the water."

Petherick suffered eight puncture wounds in her right thigh, a puncture wound in her left thigh and a severe cut to one of her fingers from the attack, which occurred late yesterday in Litchfield National Park, southwest of Darwin, Australia's northernmost city. Her husband had only minor scratches.



"If Norm wasn't there (the crocodile) would have death rolled me," Petherick said, referring to the crocodile's method of rolling and twisting under water to kill and eat its prey. Instead, Norm's attack drove the crocodile away from the scene.

Moreen, 39, who lives with his wife and three children in a nearby community, has been hailed as a hero by Northern Territory police and hospital officials but shrugged off the praise. "When you need to save someone that you love, you just do it," he said. "It's pretty scary, but you have no time for thinking, you know?"