Surfer Shark Attack: Sean Pollard Loses Arm and Hand, Miraculously Survives 2 Great Whites in Australia
A surfer's shark attack in Australia left him without an arm, a hand, and with other bites on his legs, but he miraculously survived the ordeal. Sean Pollard, a 23-year-old electrician, had been surfing at Kelpids Beach in Wylie Beach near Esperance Thursday when beachgoers saw him swimming to shore in a cloud of blood.
The surfer's shark attack occurred at about 11 a.m. when he was surfing about a quarter mile from the shore. Another surfer, Esperance Primary School deputy principal Ross Tamlin, told Perth Now he heard an "almighty scream" and immediately scrambled to get out of the water.
Pollard managed to swim over 100 yards to shore, but collapsed not far from the shore. Immediately Dean Gabler, who saw the surfer from his car, dragged him out of the surf alongside Kylie Rothnie, a St. John Ambulance volunteer.
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"My wife said, 'You'd better get out there,'" Gabler recalled. "He stood up and fell back on his back. When I got out to him he was just lying on his back, eyes shut."
While Gabler and Rothnie's husband Peter carried him, the ambulance volunteer found leg ropes to use as tourniquets. Pollard had lost a hand and part of his arm to the sharks, but Rothnie said he was brave through the entire incident.
"He was conscious the whole time," she told Perth Now. "He was so brave through the whole thing."
The group loaded Pollard into his own station wagon and drove him to the hospital while the surfer's girlfriend, Claire Oakford, sat in the back with him. On the way they met police and emergency medical workers. Paramedics said that the group acting so quickly was part of the reason Pollard survived despite losing so much blood.
Pollard is now stable at Royal Perth Hospital, according to reports.
"He has a very positive attitude and he and his partner Claire have thanked the community and the emergency services for their assistance yesterday," Senior Sergeant Richard Moore told The West Australian.
The two great white sharks that attacked Pollard were caught by the local authorities, humanely killed and dissected to prevent threats to beachgoers, according to ABC.au. Pollard's body parts were not found inside the animals, though officials have said the predators often void their stomachs.
