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Move over Dundee! Danish backpacker sees the funny side after falling on a croc

TheCopenhagenPost
November 7th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Unintended trip down a slippery bank could have gone much worse

“Seriously, I was just lying here, minding my own business …” (photo: Jon Connel)

The story of a Danish backpacker who survived falling onto a crocodile in western Australia is steadily doing the rounds across the world.

Either as a last-minute item on the news or a ‘how stupid can you get’ story, Johnny Bonde, 27, is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.

Deep cuts to arm
Bonde was at Lake Kununurra in Australia’s tropical north late on Friday evening when he spotted a freshwater crocodile in the water and stepped up on a bank to take its picture.

“Next thing I know, I’m sliding down the bank and landing straight on top of the croc,” Bonde said. “He got a pretty good grip on me and shook me around a bit.

Bonde was treated in a local hospital for deep cuts to his arm, although the young Dane – already perhaps sizing up the newsworthiness of his situation – managed to take a video of his wounds and post it on YouTube.

Crash landing
Bonde said he felt “stupid” and understood why the 2.5-metre long crocodile took a bite out of his arm.

“If somebody body-slammed me at night, I would be angry too,” he told Perth’s Sunday Times newspaper.

New kind of sport?
Some media have since seized on Bonde’s use of the term ‘body-slammed’, inferring that it must be a kind of new sport that Generation Z is filming on their phones.

“Danish backpacker bitten after ‘body-slamming’ Australian crocodile,” reported the Guardian.

And Bonde has further entered into the spirit of the occasion by photoshopping a photo of Crocodile Dundee to remember the moment.

Not bad Photoshopping given one of his arms is out of action (photo: Johnny Bonde's Facebook page)

Not bad photoshopping given one of his arms is out of action (photo: Johnny Bonde’s Facebook page)


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Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

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At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”