An Irish-born doctor in Pensacola, Florida, has succeeded in re-attaching an eight-year-old boy's arm. The arm was recovered from the body of a shark that had bitten it off. Jessie Arbogast was playing in knee-deep water at the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Northwest Florida on Friday evening when a 7-foot bull shark bit off his arm between the elbow and shoulder, as well as part of his leg.
His uncle wrestled the shark to the beach, where a park ranger shot it four times in the head, causing it to relax its jaws. The ranger prized the shark's mouth open with a police baton while a volunteer firefighter retrieved the arm using a pair of forceps.
The arm was put on ice and was reattached during eleven hours of surgery. Doctors said that it was too early to tell if Jessie would regain full use of the limb. Jessie was said to be in a critical condition but had begun to regain consciousness and show signs of recognising his family.
Dr Ian Rogers, the micro-surgeon who carried out the delicate operation, comes from Dublin, but has worked in Pensacola since 1986. "I looked at the limb and was absolutely amazed at how clean cut [the wound] actually was. Typically, you would expect shark bites to be very jagged. The limb was essentially torn off and swallowed by the shark," said Dr Rogers. More than a third of 79 unprovoked shark attacks last year occurred in Florida waters.
