Boca Raton Fire Rescue Capt. Jason Owens checks on the shark bite victim
before she was taken to the hospital.
Photo provided
By Sallie James
It was an “only in Florida” story if there ever was one: A young woman went for a swim in the ocean and emerged with a baby nurse shark attached to her forearm.
A shark that had latched on so tightly that rescue workers decided not to remove the shark from the woman’s arm, but took her by ambulance to Boca Raton Regional Hospital with the creature still attached.
“If it can happen, it will happen in Florida,” said Boca Raton Fire Rescue spokesman Bob Lemons. “There was very little blood — there wasn’t really any active bleeding when the marine patrol or we were on scene. She was in very good spirits. She made several social media posts.”
The woman’s name was not released. Her condition is unclear and it’s unclear how the shark was removed.
The odd incident occurred around 1:20 p.m. on May 15, when a woman showed up at Lifeguard Station No. 8 with the shark firmly attached to her right forearm.
Boca Raton Ocean Rescue Capt. Clint Tracy was on duty at another location when he heard radio chatter about the shark. Ocean rescue workers are careful not to tie up the airwaves with idle chatter, so the transmissions caught his attention immediately.
“We have a young lady with a small nurse shark attached to her arm,” a rescue worker from Lifeguard Station No. 8 said.
“I asked him if he needed fire rescue at the time. He said, ‘Not at this time,’ and then a lieutenant arrived and said we did,” Tracy said. The first lifeguard on scene — who was new to the job — was extremely calm and handled the situation well, Tracy said.
By the time Fire Rescue arrived, Ocean Rescue had pretty much stabilized everything. However, the 2-foot-long shark — which was dead — was still attached to the woman’s arm, he said.
According to National Geographic, nurse sharks have strong jaws “filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth, and will bite defensively if stepped on or bothered by divers who assume they are docile.”
Rescue workers put a splint underneath the woman’s arm and underneath the shark so she could be transported with the shark on her arm. Rescue workers didn’t want to pull off the shark and possibly cause unnecessary tissue damage.
How the incident occurred remains in question.
According to some witnesses, several people in the water were antagonizing the shark. A friend said the shark just came out of the water and bit the woman.
“We were there to keep her comfortable and transport her to the hospital. I think it was just a very unique situation,” Lemons said. “Everybody worked well together.”
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