Erco ‘Boela’ Janse van Rensburg (15) from Centurion was asleep in a tent with his parents at the Crocodile Bridge Camp when he was attacked.
He woke up around 04:00 with the hyena’s jaws around his head.
Janse van Rensburg’s grandfather Basie Smalberger said his grandson described the sound of the hyena crushing the bones in his face like a packet of chips being crushed.
The animal dragged Janse van Rensburg about 30m before it sat on him. His father chased the animal away.
The young boy was rushed to Mediclinic in Nelspruit with serious injuries to his face after receiving first aid from a nurse at the camp.
Janse van Rensburg was then airlifted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg.
