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Mutilated rhino in South Africa on long road to recovery
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mutilated-rhino-south-africa-long-road-recovery-042104308.html?nhp=1Bela Bela (South Africa) (AFP) - Sedated, blindfolded, her ears plugged with cotton-wool, "Hope" the rhino breathes heavily as veterinarians work to repair a gaping wound left by poachers who hacked off her horns.
A year after being left for dead on a game reserve outside South Africa's southern city of Port Elizabeth, Hope has undergone about 15 operations to reconstruct her ravaged face.
Veterinary surgeon Johan Marais sounded optimistic after examining the wound, originally one metre in length after the attack.
"It has healed 60 percent," he said with satisfaction, stressing that the pioneering medical procedure continues to be a risky experiment.
"We don't know which antibiotics to give, at which dosage, which painkillers to give, we don't even know the basic anatomy," he admitted.
