surgery - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T14:55:27Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/surgeryHealth Notes: Elective surgeries, other procedures return with safeguards in placehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/health-notes-elective-surgeries-other-procedures-return-with-safe2020-05-20T13:57:53.000Z2020-05-20T13:57:53.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Christine Davis</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tenet Palm Beach Health Network</strong>’s Palm Beach hospitals resumed elective care on May 4, as the state lifted the relevant executive order related to the coronavirus. “Many patients have postponed medical care or are in need of treating new symptoms. Our health system is ready to safely provide this care to our community again,” says Tenet Palm Beach Health Network CEO Maggie Gill. “The Palm Beach Health Network is committed to the universal protection and safety of our patients, physicians and staff. <br /> “We have rigorous infection prevention protocols in place, and they are working. We have well-trained and experienced staff. We have clear pathways to care for COVID-19 patients separately from those with other illnesses. We have also invested in rapid testing capabilities and personal protective equipment.”<br /><strong>Delray Medical Center</strong> is a part of Tenet Palm Beach Health Network.<br /> <br /> <strong>Baptist Health South Florida</strong> began to reopen its facilities on May 6 for elective surgeries, endoscopies and interventional procedures. Enhanced protective measures, including mandatory face masks, social distancing guidelines, and entranceway screenings, will continue to be utilized.<br /> Baptist Health also notes that patients should call their doctor’s offices for the status of appointments that were canceled because of the pandemic. Regularly scheduled appointments with Baptist Health Medical Group physicians are going as planned, though visitor restrictions are in place.<br /> “We want people in our communities to know that Baptist Health has taken all the necessary precautionary actions to keep our patients, staff and visitors safe and healthy,” said Anexis Lopez, R.N., manager of infection control at Doctors Hospital, part of Baptist Health South Florida. “The steps we have taken are consistent with guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Baptist Health is also working closely with local and state public health officials.”<br /> <strong>Boca Raton Regional Hospital</strong> and <strong>Bethesda East</strong> are part of Baptist Health South Florida.</p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960954886,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960954886,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960954886?profile=original" /></a><em>Two lab technicians suit up to begin testing samples for COVID-19 on the campus of Miami Cancer Institute.</em><br /> <br /> In mid-April, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for Baptist Hospital of Miami Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory at <strong>Miami Cancer Institute</strong> to perform a new COVID-19 swab test in-house, which was developed at the Miami Cancer Institute. This testing allows Miami Cancer Institute to perform a number of tests twice a day and receive results within 24 hours. The lab is able to perform 40-80 tests per day, with capacity for more in the near future.<br /> <br />In early April, a team from <strong>Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science</strong> and <strong>Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems</strong> rapidly produced protective face shields in response to a request from Baptist Health South Florida. <br /> Making the inexpensive, disposable face shield requires only clear polyester plastic, elastic fabric bands, and a laser cutter, and it’s simple and quick. Baptist Health South Florida requested an initial order of 4,000 face shields, which the FAU team completed, and Baptist ordered 4,000 more. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960955269,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960955269,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960955269?profile=original" /></a><em>Henry Phipps, 5, working at home, was one of the students from A.D. Henderson School who helped make 3D face shields and other supplies for several hospitals. <strong>Photos provided</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> Another innovative solution, this one by Florida Atlantic University’s <strong>Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies</strong> at A.D. Henderson University School and FAU High School: Through April, students ranging from ages 5 to 18, along with two faculty members, worked to create more than 1,200 3D printed face shields, 36 intubation chambers and 2,000 ear savers for several hospitals in Palm Beach County. <br /> The intubation chambers, a unique form of PPE for hospitals, provide an extra layer of protection for doctors and nurses when they are intubating patients who need to be put on respirators. <br /> Allan Phipps, district science coordinator at Henderson School and FAU High, was contacted by Giovana Jaen, an FAU High grad in her third year as a student at Schmidt College of Medicine, about doing this for a local hospital. <br />Phipps relocated the school’s 3D printing equipment to his garage and began coordinating the institute’s efforts, as well as manufacturing face shields and intubation chambers with his children, who attend Henderson School. Phipps and James Nance, a middle school science teacher, host social distancing drive-thrus in front of the school where students can drop off 3D printed face shields and ear savers they created at home. <br /> <br /> Karethy Edwards, a professor and associate dean of academic programs, and Karen Chambers, an assistant professor, both in <strong>Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing</strong>, are spearheading programs to provide PPE and health care services for homeless people and low-income individuals who live in a northwest neighborhood in West Palm Beach. On April 28, in collaboration with the Northwest Community Health Alliance board, Chambers and about 10 faculty and staff members distributed more than 400 face masks to residents in this community. An additional 150 face masks were to be distributed early May. <br /> <br /> On April 29, the <strong>HCA East Florida Hospitals</strong> of Palm Beach County announced its participation in a national study to determine if plasma from convalescent or recovered COVID-19 patients may benefit people hospitalized with severe or life-threatening cases. <br /> As part of the effort, JFK Medical Center and Palms West Hospital are seeking eligible volunteers to donate plasma. Those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have since tested negative can help by donating plasma through OneBlood (<a href="http://www.oneblood.org/lp/covid-19-convalescent-plasma.stml">www.oneblood.org/lp/covid-19-convalescent-plasma.stml</a>) or the American Red Cross (<a href="http://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/plasma-donations-from-recovered-covid-19-patients.html">www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/plasma-donations-from-recovered-covid-19-patients.html</a>). For information, call HCA’s dedicated COVID-19 Plasma Phone Line at 833-582-1971 or visit hcahealthcare.com.<br /> <br /> A team at <strong>Jupiter Scripps Research</strong> has found that an effective COVID-19 vaccine need not incorporate the entire spike protein that gives the novel coronavirus its crown-like appearance, according to an April 28 news release.<br /> Rather, a vaccine containing one-sixth of the entire spike, just the tip, is sufficient to elicit an immune response in rodent models, and may be safer. This suggests that mass production of a potentially safer, less costly COVID-19 vaccine can be accomplished on a timeline shortened by several months. <br /> The findings were published prior to peer review on the preprint site BioRXiv at <a href="http://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.10.036418v1">www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.10.036418v1</a>.</p></div>Along the Coast: Rescue, rehab and release — The saga of George Bush the turtle and those who nursed him back to healthhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-rescue-rehab-and-release-the-saga-of-george-bush-2017-10-04T17:00:00.000Z2017-10-04T17:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743079,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743079,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="418" alt="7960743079?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>SEPT. 15:</strong> On the morning of his release, a loggerhead turtle, named George Bush by his rescuers, swims in a holding tank at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong><br /> <br /> On the Friday after Hurricane Irma’s assault on Palm Beach County — a morning so wonderfully blue and breezy you almost needed those fallen trees to convince you it had really happened — a white Ford Explorer left the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton and headed south to a private dock in Lighthouse Point.<br /> Riding in the back was a 206-pound loggerhead turtle named George Bush.<br /> Compared with what that turtle had already been through, it turned out the hurricane wasn’t that big a deal to him.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /> • • •</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> Nearly four months earlier, about 8 o’clock on Sunday morning, May 28, two paddle-boarders had been resting maybe 300 yards off Delray Beach, when a stranger joined them.<br /> Will Vacha and Bryan Rydzewski are old friends and ardent oceangoers.<br /> “The north end of Delray Beach is our home,” Vacha recalled. “We were just sitting on our boards talking when this turtle came up to us and surfaced and stayed there, checking us out.”<br /> Vacha spotted a trail of blue fishing line dangling from the turtle’s left front flipper. They had no tools, but using the key to Vacha’s truck, Rydzewski was able to cut some of the line free.<br /> The turtle sank to the ocean floor and stayed there.<br /> “He’s pretty weak,” Rydzewski told Vacha. “He’s probably not going to move and eventually he’ll be prey to something bigger.”<br /> Rydzewski adjusted his goggles, swam down and helped the turtle to the surface once more. As they debated what to do, Vacha spotted two jet skiers approaching. A pair of pliers was offered and still more line removed.<br /> Now Vacha and Rydzewski tried to lift the turtle onto a paddleboard.<br /> “Not knowing much about sea turtles, I was impressed that he wasn’t aggressive at all,” Vacha said.<br /> After failing to get the turtle to ride the board, Rydzewski decided they should swim him to shore. As he pushed the turtle from behind, Vacha paddled alongside.<br /> “He’s not fighting me at all,” Rydzewski said.<br /> “We would rest every couple of feet, but at no point did it seem he was trying to get away,” Vacha recalled. “He was very cooperative.”<br /> On shore they flagged down Sgt. Bernard O’Donnell of the Gulf Stream Police Department, patrolling on his ATV. Joan Lorne, a longtime volunteer turtle monitor, happened by and called for help.<br /> “While we were waiting, we were able to really look at the damage done,” Vacha said, “and it wasn’t just a single line. A steel cable had wrapped itself around his armpit, basically.”<br /> Whitney Crowder, the turtle rehabilitation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo, was home in Boca Raton when the call came. She and her husband, Andrew, a marine biologist, drove up to Delray Beach. They loaded the loggerhead into the back of O’Donnell’s four-wheel ATV and went as far as the Sandoway Discovery Center, where they transferred the turtle to Crowder’s Toyota.<br /> Caitlin Bovery, also a rehab coordinator, met them in the Gumbo Limbo parking lot. The turtle was lifted onto a gurney and wheeled into the rehabilitation area. Dr. Maria Chadam, the center’s primary veterinarian for the past six years, was on the way.<br /> The badly injured turtle had no name at that point. But he had been rescued almost directly off George Bush Boulevard.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743859,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743859,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960743859?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>MAY 28:</strong> Will Vacha and Bryan Rydzewski coax the loggerhead to the beach so others can deal with his injured flipper. <strong>Photo provided by Joan Lorne</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743481,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743481,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960743481?profile=original" /></a> <em>(l-r) Caitlin Bovery, Ali Courtemanche, Taylor Roe and Avion Gourdeen use a crash cart to wheel George Bush from the parking lot to the treatment center at Gumbo Limbo. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744064,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744064,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960744064?profile=original" /></a><em>Andrew Crowder and his son Finlee watch as veterinarian Dr. Maria Chadam, Courtemanche and Roe work to remove the fishing line tangled around George Bush’s flipper (below). <strong>Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743694,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960743694,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960743694?profile=original" /></a><br /> • • •</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> When George Bush arrived at Gumbo Limbo, he weighed 190 pounds and was estimated to be about 20 years old, a young adult. A healthy loggerhead can live to be 80.<br /> The admittance notes said, “Lethargic. Severe entanglement around left shoulder. Prognosis on flipper poor.”<br /> An X-ray of the left flipper found no broken bones, and Chadam was able to remove all the fishing line, but the deep cuts had become infected.<br /> “This is a very lucky turtle,” Crowder reported a day or two later. “If we didn’t get him in when we did, he would definitely have lost his flipper.”<br /> She spoke too soon.<br /> By Tuesday, June 6, about 75 percent of the flipper had become infected and a wound culture found a flesh-eating bacteria attacking it.<br /> The turtle was transferred to the Palm Beach Zoo, where Chadam performed a partial amputation, which took about an hour. <br /> “A full amputation is a lot more invasive and difficult,” she explained. “We’re trying to save some part of his limb for help with steering, but we worry about the infection getting into the shoulder and bone and joint.”</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> Five weeks later, on July 11, he was back at the zoo for a second operation.<br /> “The tissue had died off too much,” Chadam said. <br /> The second operation, to remove the entire flipper and humerus bone, took two hours because a loggerhead’s muscles are so firmly attached, the tendons and ligaments so tough that cutting through them takes time.<br /> “These guys are built like a pit bull,” Chadam said. “I must have dulled three scissors.”<br /> George Bush was put under a general anesthetic and a tube was placed in his trachea, then attached to a breathing machine while the remaining flipper and bone were removed.<br /> “He doesn’t like me too much now,” Chadam said when Bush was back in his tank and recuperating at Gumbo Limbo. “I’m the one who looks at his wounds and does things he doesn’t like. They’re not smart, but they’re instinctively intelligent.”<br /> A turtle can navigate with only three flippers, she said. “But he may have trouble mating. They use their front flippers to hold on to the female.”</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744478,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744478,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960744478?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>JULY 11:</strong> George Bush undergoes a second surgery, for a full amputation of the wounded flipper. The PVC pipe in his mouth protected the breathing machine tube that kept him going. <strong>Photo provided by Caitlin Bovery </strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> On Friday, July 28, the sutures came out.<br /> “He still has a bit to go with the healing process,” Chadam reported, “but he did eat one squid, so he’s feeling better.”<br /> Through it all, George Bush was treated with antibiotics. His wounds were flushed with chlorhexidine, a disinfectant and antiseptic. Raw honey, a natural antibiotic, antimicrobial and antifungal, was applied.<br /> Slowly he recovered. He ate. He began to move about his tank. He weighed 206 pounds now.<br /> Finally, Chadam pronounced him well enough to go home. After nearly four months at the rehab center, George Bush would return to the sea on Friday, Sept. 15.<br /> And then Hurricane Irma struck.<br /> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744657,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744657,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960744657?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>JULY 28: </strong> Dr. Maria Chadam removes sutures from George Bush’s surgery. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em><br /> <br /> • • •</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> “The turtles are going to be evacuated,” Crowder announced. “It’s going to be exhausting.”<br /> On Friday, Sept. 8, as residents wondered just where in Florida Irma would strike, the staff at Gumbo Limbo loaded up seven patients, including George Bush and a second loggerhead named Kraken, and drove them to the city’s Sugar Sand Park, well inland on Military Trail.<br /> The smaller turtles were each placed in a tub in a large, windowless room. Nearby, a plywood corral was constructed for the two big loggerheads. A board down the middle kept them apart.<br /> “We separate them because the males will kill each other,” Chadam said matter-of-factly. “They’re very mean.”<br /> Gumbo Limbo survived without any major damage, and on Monday afternoon, George Bush and his fellow evacuees returned to the center.<br /> Four days later, he was in the back of that Ford Explorer and on the way home.<br /> He was not alone, however.<br /> Following the Explorer was a white Ford minivan with thousands — thousands! — of hurricane refugees inside.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /> • • •</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> When Hurricane Irma struck, the waves off our coast were alive with hatchlings, newborn turtles, not 3 inches long, swimming like mad for the weed line, those thick islands of floating sargassum eight or 10 miles out.<br /> The weeds mean safety. The brown algae provides a camouflage against predators. The tiny shrimp and crabs that lurk there provide a meal.<br /> “It’s called washback,” Caitlin Bovery said. “When the hurricane struck, they all got kicked back onshore by the storm surge. The fact that they’re even alive now is amazing.”<br /> After the storm, Gumbo Limbo got a call from the state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. Dedicated volunteers from New Smyrna Beach to Boca Raton had been gathering the stranded hatchlings off their beaches. Could the center help these hurricane refugees finally reach the weed line?<br /> The collected hatchings were delivered and inventoried, placed in 15 plastic bins and loaded into the minivan.<br /> On that sparkling Friday morning after Irma, two Gumbo Limbo vans set out for Lighthouse Point, bearing 2,523 baby turtles and one big loggerhead with only three flippers.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /> • • •</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> Capt. Tom Campbell is a retired marine engineer with a 38-foot fishing boat called the Sand Dollar and an even bigger heart.<br /> He is volunteering his boat today without charging Gumbo Limbo. He never does.<br /> On board are Chadam, Whitney Crowder, Caitlin Bovery and the center’s rehab technicians Rebecca Mannen and Emily Mirowski, along with some family and friends. <br /> The hatchling bins are stacked in the bow and George Bush at the stern, resting on a canvas tarp with straps for easy lifting.<br /> “It’s super flat today,” Capt. Tom says as the Sand Dollar passes a 60-foot yacht that’s been tossed on its side by the storm. <br /> Once through the inlet, he blasts the radio, The Beach 102.7, rock sounds loud enough to be heard above the engines.<br /> The Sand Dollar bounds over the waves, then slows to a purr at the third reef out, a mile offshore. <br /> At 11 a.m., Chadam, Mirowski, Mannen and Capt. Tom’s friend Carmine Genovese each take a strap and lift George Bush to the side of the boat.<br /> “One! Two! Three!” someone calls, and George Bush is gone, sliding into the murky water and disappearing beneath the waves without so much as a goodbye wave.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744865,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744865,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="547" alt="7960744865?profile=original" /></a><strong>SEPT. 15:</strong> In 70 feet of water near a hospitable reef, George Bush is released over the side of Tom Campbell’s boat and is home again.| <strong><a href="http://thecoastalstar.com/video/rescue-rehab-and-release">Video</a></strong><br /></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><strong>Photos and Video by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> A half-hour later, the boat is nearly 8 miles offshore. The tower of the Boca Raton Resort & Club is a tiny pink finger against the blue sky, and the sargassum is thick here.<br /> Chadam, Bovery and a half dozen others leap into the sea and tread water as the bins are handed overboard, floating like small plastic lifeboats on the waves.<br /> The rescuers gather round and place the hatchlings on the surface and watch them paddle frantically toward the weeds. Handful after handful until all 2,523 babies are in the water, in the weeds, home.<br /> “That’s it!” And a cheer erupts.<br /> They climb back aboard, and as Capt. Tom steers the Sand Dollar toward land, his radio starts blasting Celebration, by Kool & The Gang.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744882,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960744882,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960744882?profile=original" /></a><em><strong>SEPT. 15:</strong> After the crew released loggerhead George Bush near shore for easy access to a safe reef, the boat traveled nearly 8 miles offshore from Boca Raton for the next release. These greens were among more than 2,500 turtle hatchlings released near mats of floating sargassum. Hatchlings naturally seek out sargassum for cover and food. </em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960745262,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960745262,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960745262?profile=original" /></a><em>Five of the seven species of sea turtles were represented in this release. Clockwise from the smallest one at top: loggerhead, hawksbill, green, Kemp’s ridley and leatherback. <strong>Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /> • • •</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> On the trip back to Lighthouse Point, Chadam sits at the stern in a floppy straw hat and dark sunglasses, watching in silence as the weed line shrinks in the distance.<br /> What are the chances the hatchlings will make it, she is asked.<br /> Well, she says, the experts estimate that only one out of every 1,000 sea turtles survives to adulthood.<br /> Predators get them. Hurricanes get them. Blue fishing lines get them.<br /> Of the 2,523 baby turtles they’ve just released, she says, only two or three will live to be as old as George Bush.<em><strong><br /> <br /></strong></em></p>
<p></p>
<p></p></div>On the Water: Angler learns the hard way that catfish can cause serious injuryhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/on-the-water-angler-learns-the-hard-way-that-catfish-can-cause-se2016-11-02T13:37:43.000Z2016-11-02T13:37:43.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685689,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685689,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960685689?profile=original" /></a> <em>Austin Seidman, 21, did a lot of boating and fishing while growing up in Highland Beach.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685871,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685871,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960685871?profile=original" /></a>The catfish spine removed from his calf muscle.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686060,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686060,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960686060?profile=original" /></a><em>Stitches show the size of the wound after the spine was extracted.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photos provided</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Willie Howard</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> Austin Seidman grew up on Highland Beach and spent a lot of time fishing and boating on the waters of south Palm Beach County.<br /> The pre-law student at the University of Central Florida knows a fair amount about South Florida fishing. <br /> But as he discovered while fishing with a friend from a Delray Beach dock in August, even a small, innocent-looking catfish can pose significant hazards.<br /> Seidman was fishing at night with friend Xander Cohen and was using the small catfish as bait, hoping to catch a tarpon or snook near the dock where they were fishing just north of Linton Boulevard.<br /> As Seidman tried to cast the catfish out into the water, it slapped the back of his leg, thrusting one of its venomous spines deep into his calf muscle.<br /> “It felt like a scorpion,” said Seidman, who wanted to share his story so others don’t make the same mistake with catfish.<br /> Cohen used cutters to cut the spine and release the fish, but the damage was done. A serrated catfish spine remained embedded in Seidman’s leg. <br /> Seidman began to feel light-headed. Within 15 minutes, he felt shooting pain in his leg.<br /> Cohen helped him limp into the emergency room at Delray Medical Center. After a few hours, the emergency room doctor stopped trying to remove the catfish spine and scheduled surgery, Seidman said.<br /> Surgery was performed the next day at Delray Medical Center. <br /> After the spine was removed, Seidman was stitched up and given pain medication and antibiotics. He spent the night in the hospital.<br /> “The following week, it was like I got shot in the leg,” Seidman said. “I wasn’t walking. My leg was twice its normal size.”<br /> Months later and studying at UCF, Seidman said his left leg remains weaker because of the catfish-spine injury.<br /> “I wouldn’t even feel strong enough to play basketball,” Seidman said in early October. “If I ran a 5K, I know it would hurt.”<br /> Seidman is not sure what species of catfish caused his injury. A common marine catfish in South Florida is the gafftopsail catfish, so named for the tall dorsal fin on its back.<br /> Gafftopsail catfish have hard, venomous, serrated spines on their dorsal and pectoral fins. They’re difficult to handle in part because they excrete a slippery slime coating.<br /> “Always wear gloves when removing your hook and watch out for the spines,” advises the fishing website <a href="http://www.Floridagofishing.com">www.Floridagofishing.com</a>.<br /> Small catfish pose the greatest hazard because their spines are smaller and more likely to puncture the skin than those of larger catfish, according to the catfish fishing website <a href="http://www.catfishedge.com">www.catfishedge.com</a>.<br /> Handle small catfish by sliding a hand up from the back of the fish so that the part of the hand between the thumb and forefinger rests securely against the back of the catfish’s dorsal fin, then hold them firmly, advises <a href="http://www.catfishedge.com">www.catfishedge.com</a>.<br /> A Manatee County man’s encounter with a catfish earlier this year was worse than Seidman’s.<br /> While fishing on Sarasota’s Lido Beach, he set the hook hard. The catfish flew out of the water and hit him in the face. Its spine pierced his eye, leading to four surgeries and three months of recovery, according to a report by St. Petersburg television station Bay News 9.<br /> Austin’s mother, Peggy Gossett-Seidman, said it was hard for her to believe the hazards of catfish until she saw the pain a catfish spine inflicted on her son.<br /> “We get preoccupied about gators, morays and mosquitoes, yet a common footlong catfish [caught] off a neighbor’s dock caused great harm,” she said. “I never imagined catfish were so harmful.”<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Palm Beach might restrict shark fishing near beach</span><br /> If the Palm Beach Town Council gives final approval Nov. 8, shark fishing and chumming will be prohibited within 300 feet of town beaches and beach-access points.<br /> The council approved the shark-fishing ordinance on first reading Oct. 10. <br /> In addition to using bait and chumming to attract sharks, the ordinance prohibits “the use of shark lures and rigs” within 300 feet north and south of town beaches and beach-access points.<br /> Sharks caught by accident in the restricted areas of beach “must be released and unharmed,” says the ordinance, which would take effect immediately if approved.<br /> Deputy Town Manager Jay Boodheshwar said the shark-fishing and chumming prohibitions would be in effect 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Lifeguards, code enforcement officers and town police officers would enforce the regulations.<br /> Signs explaining the shark-fishing rules should be posted at town beaches by January if the ordinance is given final approval. <br /> Courtesy warnings are expected to be issued before beach anglers are issued citations, Boodheshwar said.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Fort Lauderdale boat show</span> <br /> The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show continues through Nov. 7 at multiple waterfront locations.<br /> Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. except on Nov. 7, when the show closes at 5 p.m.<br /> Fishing seminars, free with the price of admission, will be offered at the Broward County Convention Center. <br /> Adult fishing seminars produced by the IGFA School of Sportfishing continue through Nov. 6.<br /> Kids fishing seminars produced by Hook the Future will be Nov. 5 and 6.<br /> Admission is $28 for adults and $12 for ages 6-15. Ages 5 and under are free. <br /> For details, call 954-764-7642 or visit <a href="http://www.flibs.com">www.flibs.com</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Coming events</span><br /> <strong>Nov. 5:</strong> Basic boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the headquarters building at Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Fee $35. Register at the door. Bring lunch. Call 391-3600 or email fso-pe@cgauxboca.org.<br /> <strong>Nov. 12:</strong> Third annual LagoonFest, a celebration of the Lake Worth Lagoon. Environmental exhibits, casting practice for young anglers, kayak paddling, paddle races and water taxi rides will be offered. Hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. along Flagler Drive in downtown West Palm Beach. It’s free. Call 233-2400 or go to <a href="http://www.LagoonFest.com">www.LagoonFest.com</a>.<br /> <strong>Nov. 26:</strong> Coast Guard Auxiliary offers basic boating class, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the classroom next to the boat ramps at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, 2010 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Fee $40. Register at the door. Call 331-2429.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686294,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686294,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960686294?profile=original" /></a><em>Bob Pfeil of Boca Raton caught this bonefish in September while fishing</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>from the beach in Delray Beach. Pfeil saw two bonefish cruising in a trough near the beach on a calm afternoon</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>and made a long cast with a soft-plastic lure, which landed in front of one of them. He released the bonefish.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photo provided</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Tip of the month</span><br /> Thinking about buying or selling a boat?<br /> BoatUS, the recreational boating organization, offers two free template forms for boat transactions: the purchase agreement and the bill of sale.<br /> The purchase agreement outlines the buyer’s intention to purchase a boat contingent on several factors, such as completion of a satisfactory marine survey and the ability to obtain financing and insurance. It’s usually accompanied by a refundable deposit.<br /> The bill of sale serves as proof of purchase and is used by the buyer to register the boat in his or her name.<br /> The BoatUS forms include notes about what to check while filling in the blanks, such as making sure the boat’s hull identification number matches the number listed on the title and registration.<br /> The forms can be downloaded from the BoatUS website at <a href="http://www.boatus.com/consumer/purchase-and-sale-forms.asp">www.boatus.com/consumer/purchase-and-sale-forms.asp</a>.<strong><br /><br /></strong><em>Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.</em></p></div>