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Sunbathers save man’s life after shark attack

By Mark Cox
October 1, 2011 at 9:00 am

When a shark-ravaged man was dragged out of the sea in South Africa a few days ago – missing a leg and bleeding to death – things looked pretty bleak. But then a crowd of sunbathers dashed to help and saved his life.

It’s an incredible story. Imagine: you’re snoozing gently on a sunny beach, pina colada in hand, then suddenly this horrific scene pops up before your eyes.

When he was plumped down on the beach, the horrified sunbathers saw that the victim (a British man) had one leg completely bitten off, another severed below the knee and massive blood loss – seven litres, in fact.

Unquestionably, he would have died in minutes. But the quick-thinking sunbathers hurriedly made a tourniquet from a wetsuit, which kept him alive.

The surgeon who operated on the man later said: “The tourniquet consisted of a wetsuit applied around the thigh and wrapped around with two belts very, very tightly. It was an amateur tourniquet, but almost completely resulted in a cessation of blood loss.”

The moral of this tale: in extreme emergencies, it’s better to act than to do nothing. Note how the surgeon is careful to say that, although it was an ‘amateur tourniquet’, it still ‘almost completely’ stemmed the blood flow. And in such a dire situation, who cares how tidy and professional the intervention is?

I’m always impressed by stories like these, where normal people going about their business suddenly show a huge capacity for bravery and helpfulness. And that’s why the Red Cross has launched a new, simplified approach to learning life-saving skills – Everyday First Aid – to encourage more people to discover their inner hero.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 1st, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under First aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • IM

    Not sunbathers.  Two prison missionaries pulled him out of the water and the official Shark Spotter who is also a trained lifeguard did the tourniquet.

  • India617

    The people who saved this mans life were two pensioners driving home who happened to notice the attack victim in the water and also saw the shark. The lifeguards applied the torniquet. Who had also seen the lone swimmer and shark and rushed to try and get him out of the water before the shark attacked him. Despite warnings the man still entered the water . An act of sheer lunacy and one that put his rescuers at risk also.

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Mark Cox

Mark Cox

Mark Cox is UK services writer at the British Red Cross.

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