‘Like a Formula 1 pit stop’: Inside the operation to save Manly shark victim’s life

1 month ago 10

Two NSW Police highway patrol cars carrying blood from two hospitals stopped on the Spit Bridge in a 10-second handover described as being akin to a Formula 1 pit stop to deliver blood to the ambulance carrying the 27-year-old man attacked by a bull shark at Manly on Monday.

The man, from Wollongong, is now in hospital recovering after an operation on his lower leg. While the blood drop improved his chances of survival, he remains in a critical condition.

The man was loaded into an ambulance after CPR was performed.

The shark attack was the third in Sydney within 26 hours, and all beaches on the northern beaches have been closed.

Steve Pearce, the chief executive of Surf Life Saving, NSW, said another 30 drum lines had been deployed and drones were flying over the beaches on Tuesday.

“As a result of this spate of attacks, three attacks in around 24 hours is unprecedented in Sydney,” Pearce said.

“The beaches are closed. The beaches are unsafe. For your own personal safety do not swim for the next 48 hours.”

Despite two off-duty doctors on the scene, and the application of several tourniquets – including by a surfer using his board’s leg rope – the man lost life-threatening amounts of blood.

Acting superintendent of NSW Ambulance Christie Marks said the man needed 13 units of blood and would likely have died if he hadn’t received it.

It was for situations like this that they put in place procedures where police meet ambulances en route “for those patients that just are not going to make it to a hospital”.

But two police cars and that amount of blood was extraordinary.

“And 13 units of blood is a lot of blood for one patient,” she said. “We had two police highway patrol cars that met at the Spit Bridge and, then, in what they said was almost like an F1 pitstop of 10 seconds where they just opened the door [and transferred the blood].

“It’s amazing everybody working together – lifesavers, lifeguards off duty, and paramedic officers that were there, and then our team [giving him] every chance of surviving.”

Despite warnings over loudspeakers and signs saying the beach was closed, some people were still in the water in Manly just after 6am on Tuesday.

Premier Chris Minns told 2GB on Tuesday he didn’t have a silver bullet for increasing beach safety.

But he thought warnings could be improved to let people know when sharks posed a heightened risk, like when the water turns murky, dirty and warm following rainfall and storms.

“I remember hearing that from one of my aunts when I was a kid, that when there’s stormy weather, when the water is unclear, that’s when bull sharks particularly get in and about the lower estuaries, and it can be incredibly dangerous.

Swimmers briefly go into the water at Manly Beach where there are signs warning of a shark sighting and that the beach is closed following Monday’s shark attack.

“Our warning system and communication needs to be beefed up, particularly during stormy weather.”

Any increased monitoring and warning programs would not replace existing shark mitigation measures like nets at metropolitan beaches.

“We’re keeping them despite the fact that there’s pressure to remove them,” he said.

“We can’t have a situation where they’re removed and we have further shark attacks on major metropolitan beaches.”

The NSW government abandoned a planned trial to remove shark nets at three beaches after Mercury Psillakis was killed by a shark at Long Reef Beach in September, near where a boy was attacked at Dee Why on Monday. Another boy was attacked at Vaucluse on Sunday. He continues to fight for his life in hospital after being bitten by a large bull shark while swimming with friends at a popular jump rock.

Manly MP James Griffin on Tuesday echoed Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane’s earlier call for increased monitoring.

“Shark nets or not, additional investment and monitoring by drone and improved technology is seriously needed,” Griffin said.

He said locals at the beachfront on Tuesday morning were “struggling with the impact” of the two incidents at Dee Why and Manly.

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