Boy's Arm Reattached After Florida Shark Attack

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News : One Thread

Boy's Arm Reattached After Florida Shark Attack

July 8, 2001 4:09 pm EST

PENSACOLA, Fla. (Reuters) - An 8-year-old boy whose right arm was bitten off by a shark and retrieved from the predator's throat was recovering from surgery to reattach the limb, a hospital official said on Sunday.

The boy, Jessie Arbogast, was in critical condition but had begun to regain consciousness and show signs of recognizing his family, Baptist Hospital spokeswoman Pam Bilbrey said.

"He had a good 24 hours. He shows no sign of infection. There's no sign of loss of blood supply or blood flow to the arm, which are all good signs," Bilbrey said.

Jessie was playing in knee-deep water at the Gulf Islands National Seashore in northwest Florida at dusk on Friday when a 7-foot bull shark bit off his arm between the elbow and shoulder.

He also got "a big chunk bitten out of his leg," Bilbrey said.

Jessie's uncle carried him to shore, where relatives and beachgoers gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation until he was flown by helicopter to the hospital.

The uncle then wrestled the shark to the beach, where a park ranger shot it four times in the head, causing it to relax its jaws.

The ranger pried the shark's mouth open with a police baton while volunteer firefighter Tony Thomas reached in and pulled the arm from the shark's throat using a pair of forceps, park officials said.

Emergency workers put the arm on ice and it was reattached during 11 hours of surgery on Saturday. Doctors said it was too early to tell if Jessie would regain full use of the limb.

Dr. Ian Rogers, the plastic surgeon who reattached the arm, told a news conference the wound was "remarkably clean" for a shark bite but that Jessie had lost a lot of blood and had no pulse or blood pressure when he arrived at the hospital. He required more than 30 pints of blood during surgery.

The boy, from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was vacationing in Florida with his family.

The International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida confirmed 79 unprovoked shark attcks on humans worldwide in 2000, and more than a third of those occurred in Florida waters. Ten of the attacks were fatal, including one in Florida.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001

Answers

...during 11 hours of surgery on Saturday.

I heard on the news that it was a team of doctors. Odd that they would only mention the one, even if he did head the team.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001


What I heard this morning was that the arm was doing pretty good, but the kid was in critical condition due to kidney failure.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001

Pretty amazing that the uncle went back into the water and wrestled the shark on shore to retrieve the arm....

Hope the boy recovers...

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001


http://www.boston.com/dailynews/191/nation/Doctors_Boy_whose_arm_was_r eat:.shtml

Doctors: Boy whose arm was reattached after Florida shark attack may have suffered brain damage

By Bill Kaczor, Associated Press, 7/10/2001 04:47

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) Doctors say possible brain damage is the biggest worry for an 8-year-old boy whose right arm was reattached after being bitten off by a shark.

Jessie Arbogast also suffered a severe leg wound and was nearly drained of blood. He was in critical but stable condition Monday after undergoing six surgeries to repair damage from the weekend attack.

The blood loss harmed virtually every organ in his body, said Dr. Jack Tyson, one of the surgeons who reattached the arm at Baptist Hospital. Jessie's kidneys have failed, and he was receiving dialysis.

Tyson said it was clear the boy was not brain dead, but it was too early to tell if he suffered brain damage.

A critical care pediatrician at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital, where Jessie was transferred Sunday, said a new brain wave study showed the boy was relatively stable.

''It has the appearance at this point in time of perhaps someone who is in a deep sleep, that there plainly is still electrical activity,'' Dr. Rex Northup said. ''He does seem to respond to things that are painful or bothersome to him.''

''He has done a little bit of a spontaneous eye opening and blinking of his eyes,'' Northup said.

The doctor said sedatives being used on the boy were probably contributing to his continued unconsciousness.

Although Jessie was still fighting for his life, his chances were much improved over the day he arrived at Baptist Hospital after the attack.

''Friday night I had a dead child,'' Tyson said. ''Now I have a child with a viable extremity that's warm, that's got a pulse.''

The Ocean Springs, Miss., boy was attacked in the surf at the Fort Pickens section of the Gulf Islands National Seashore in the Florida Panhandle.

His uncle, Vance Flosenzier, of Mobile, Ala., wrestled the 7-foot- long bull shark to shore with the help of another beachgoer.

A ranger shot the shark and pried its jaw open with a police baton while a volunteer firefighter pulled the arm out of the shark's gullet. Flozenzier and Jessie's aunt, Diana Flozenzier, tended to the boy.

''Hero is what I can say about the aunt and uncle,'' Tyson said. ''They took beach towels and tied off the arm and leg to try to control that bleeding, which is exactly the thing to do.''

According to the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville, 34 of the nation's 51 reported shark attacks last year were in Florida. One of the attacks was fatal: A 69-year-old man was killed by a bull shark near his St. Petersburg home last August.

There were 79 shark attacks worldwide last year, including 10 that were fatal. File officials said it is the highest number since the organization began keeping records in 1958.

On the Net:

Shark File: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ