Boy's Arm Reattached After Shark Attack

Eight-Year-Old Attacked Off Florida's Coast

PENSACOLA, Fla., 12:50 p.m. EDT July 8, 2001 -- An 8-year-old boy was in critical condition Saturday after surgeons reattached one of his arms, retrieved from the gullet of a shark wrestled ashore by the child's uncle.

The shark attacked the boy about 8:30 p.m. CDT Friday as he swam at the Fort Pickens area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore in the Florida Panhandle.

The boy's uncle dragged the 7-foot shark to shore, then a ranger pried open its mouth with his police baton while a lifeguard pulled out the limb with forceps, National Park Service officials said.

"A ranger shot it in the head three times, which was enough to get the shark to loosen his jaws," said ranger John Bandurski.

Three surgeons and a support team worked 11 hours through the night in shifts at Baptist Hospital to reattach the right arm. It had been bitten off between the elbow and shoulder by what authorities believe was a bull shark.

Surgeons also repaired damage to the boy's right leg, which lost about a third of its lateral muscle mass.

Doctors speaking at a news conference Saturday afternoon said the boy's condition remained critical, and that it was too soon to say whether the child might have suffered neurological damage due to severe blood loss.

"Amazingly this was a clean cut," said Dr. Ian Rogers, a plastic surgeon who participated in the operation.

"Shark bites you don't anticipate will be clean cuts and this was surprisingly good and surprisingly clean, specifically since it came out of the shark's stomach."

The boy's parents declined comment and did not want to identify him or themselves. Extended family members in the boy's hometown of Ocean Springs, Miss., identified him as Jessie Arbogast and his parents as David and Claire Arbogast.

Chief Ranger J.R. Tomasovic said that the boy had gone to the beach with an aunt and uncle, who were not identified, although a family member said they were from Mobile, Ala.

Immediately after the attack, relatives and emergency crews struggled to revive the boy about 250 yards west of Langdon Beach at the Gulf Islands preserve.

"It looked like the shark had been feeding on him," said tourist Guy Ogburn, 44, of Nashville.

"When I first got to him, his arm was off, his leg was wide open and there was no blood coming out," said Ogburn. "The aunt was giving him CPR and the man was pumping on his heart."

The boy was airlifted to the hospital, while his arm was taken by ambulance. En route, an Escambia County sheriff's escort that had been called in to help speed the delivery was involved in a traffic accident, Pensacola Beach volunteer firefighters said.

Dr. Jack Tyson, a general surgeon, said the boy had no pulse or blood pressure when he arrived at the hospital.

"I think he had almost completely bled out," Tyson said.

Dr. Juliet De Campos, an orthopedic surgeon, said she had to shorten the boy's arm for the reattachment but that it should grow back to normal size. Rogers said it would be months before a determination could be made of how much function the limb will have.

"It's our belief that (this) tragic incident has to do with visibility," Tomasovic (pictured, right) said. "Sharks have very poor vision. 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. That was the highest yearly total in the four decades since unprovoked shark encounters have been recorded.

Thirty-four of those attacks, nearly half, took place in Florida.

The shark attack also comes at the worst time of year for encounters between sharks and swimmers, in part because the predators are hunting for fish along 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.

Copyright 2001 by TheSanDiegoChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.