Surgeons Reattach Boy's Arm
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - An 8-year-old boy was in critical condition Saturday after a team of surgeons worked through the night to reattach his arm, which was bitten off by a 7-foot shark.
Jesse Arbogast was attacked Friday evening while he swam at Gulf Islands National Seashore near Fort Pickens in the Florida Panhandle.
The boy's uncle wrestled the shark to shore, where emergency medical personnel retrieved the arm, said chief ranger J.R. Tomasovic.
``A ranger shot it in the head three times, which was enough to get the shark to loosen his jaws,'' said ranger John Bandurski. He said it appeared to a bull shark, known as an aggressive species.
Three surgeons and a large surgical support team worked 12 hours in shifts to reattach the boy's right arm, said Pam Bilbrey, a spokeswoman for Baptist Hospital Pensacola.
Doctors said the boy's arm should grow to normal size, but it will be months before they can determine how well the limb will function.
Dr. Jack Tyson, a surgeon, said the boy had no pulse or blood pressure when he arrived at the hospital.
The boy's parents, David and Claire Arbogast of Ocean Springs, Miss., declined comment.
Tomasovic said the attack may have been a result of poor visibility in the water.
``Sharks have very poor vision,'' Tomasovic said. ``When it's dark outside or the water is murky, if they see something splashing about they can't identify, they may strike.''
The International Shark Attack File lists 79 confirmed shark attacks, 10 of them fatal, worldwide last year, the highest in the four decades that the records have been kept.
Thirty-four of those attacks took place in Florida.
This is the worst time of year for encounters between sharks and swimmers along the Gulf Coast and Southeast Florida, in part because sharks are hunting along their migratory routes, said Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
``It's sort of the whole peak season for the sharks, and it's the height of the beach season,'' he said.
On the Net:
International Shark Attack File: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm
Originally published July 07, 2001.
