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CNN Live At Daybreak

Shark Attack Victim Remains in Critical Condition

Aired July 09, 2001 - 07:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: An update now on the condition of the 8- year-old Mississippi boy whose arm was bitten off by a bull shark. The attack occurred Friday evening at Gulf Islands Beach near Pensacola.

CNN's Brian Cabell is outside Pensacola's Baptist Hospital, where the surgery to reattached the boy's arm took place.

Brian, how is he doing?

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest update, Carol, is that he remains unconscious. He remains very critical. But doctors say he spent a stable night last night. They're encouraged by that. But he has undergone kidney failure. He is undergoing dialysis. So they are concerned. It's been some 60 hours since that attack, so they are monitoring his progress very carefully after 11 hours of surgery a couple of days ago.

The story of the attack: absolutely remarkable -- the boy was wading in water that was about knee deep on Saturday -- or Friday evening -- about quarter until 8:00. He was attacked by a bull shark, 7 feet long, more than 200 pounds. The boy was -- had his arm severed. He was taken from the water by his uncle. Then the uncle, amazingly, managed to wrestle the bull shark to shore.

Then a ranger came along, shot the bull shark in the head four times, managed to prior the mouth open of the shark. Then someone else came along and managed to extract the boy's severed arm from the gullet of the shark. They put the arm in a -- in some towels and some ice, took it by ambulance, and then, after 11 hours of surgery, managed to put it back together. Now, one of the doctors who arrived onshore there for the initial work with the boy was Dr. Greg Smith in the helicopter.

What was the scene when you arrive there, Dr. Smith?

DR. GREG SMITH, ASST. MEDICAL DIRECTOR, BAPTIST FLIGHT; Well, it was truly a horrific scene. It was like something out of a Hollywood set.

There was -- the first thing we saw when we landed was the shark actually laying on the beach, because it was so impressively large. And there were quite a few people around, and the family members, and one bystander doing very effective CPR on the boy, who was obviously in very critical condition.

CABELL: Any pulse, any blood pressure at that point?

SMITH: He never had any pulse or blood pressure until after we arrived in the emergency department and gave him quite a bit of blood and I.V. fluids.

CABELL: We're talking a period of how many minutes here?

SMITH: The total period of time that he was without a pulse was probably more than 30 minutes.

CABELL: Is that unusual?

SMITH: Well, in children, anything -- there are no rules. And that's why we treat kids so aggressively. They can bounce back from very significant injuries. And this is probably the worst that I've seen. And that makes this recovery, even to this point, even that much more remarkable.

CABELL: When you arrived on the scene, exactly what did you do?

SMITH: Well, initially, the -- our initial assessment was that he had obviously had a massive loss of blood, enough over such a short period of time to stop his heart.

He was very pale. The arm was severed and missing. At that point, we did not know where it was. And his leg injury was also severe. We made a very quick decision, the very skilled -- my very skilled partner, Chris Warnock (ph), is a Flight paramedic. He and I scooped the boy in our arms and delivered him to the helicopter, kept the helicopter running, and we took off. It was about six minutes total time.

CABELL: Thank you very much...

SMITH: You're welcome.

CABELL: ... Dr. Greg Smith, again, one of the emergency physicians on the helicopter.

Again, he was taken by a flight. Then 11 hours of surgery followed. And the latest update on the boy: He remains critical. He remains unconscious. But doctors say he spent a stable night.

I'm Brian Cabell, CNN, live, back to you.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Brian.

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