PENSACOLA, Florida Islands (28 Dec 2001) -- Doctors in Florida have reattached the arm of an eight-year-old boy after it was bitten off by a shark and then recovered from the fish's jaws. The operation has been completed and the boy, whose name has not been released, is described by hospital officials as being in a "critical condition". He had been in the water at Gulf Islands National Seashore near Pensacola, Florida, when a seven-foot bull shark struck, said a park ranger. The shark bit off the boy's arm just below the elbow. The boy's uncle was able to save the child and wrestle the shark to shore. But by then the arm was completely severed and in the shark's mouth. According to a park spokesman a ranger shot the shark in order to loosen its jaws. He said: "We could see that the arm was in the shark's mouth. And so everybody backed up and the park ranger pulled out his pistol and shot the shark three times. "Then he once again stuck his baton in and I reached in and pulled the arm out of the shark's mouth." | | While the boy was being airlifted to the hospital the severed arm was sent in an ambulance. Despite a car crash by a police escort, an ambulance delivered the arm to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola. Leg wounds At the hospital a team of three surgeons and a large support staff worked in shifts for 12 hours to sew the arm back on. The eight-year-old also sustained leg wounds. Shark experts said this is the worst time of the year for shark attacks off the coast of the United States. Fish are migrating, the sharks are feeding on them, and the waters are crowded with summer vacationers. Of the 79 confirmed shark attacks worldwide last year, more than half of them occurred in Florida waters. |
