State: Boy improving year after shark attack

JACKSON, Miss. -- Nine-year-old Jessie Arbogast is making a steady recovery one year after his arm was bitten off by a shark and reattached by doctors, relatives say.

The attack, which nearly drained Jessie of blood and took a large chunk of his right thigh, left him brain-damaged. He recognizes people, seems alert and smiles. But Jessie can't talk and doctors question whether he will ever regain learning ability.

"He still doesn't speak," said Diana Flosenzier, Jessie's aunt, who was lauded for her life-saving efforts the day he was attacked. "He can communicate, and he can move his uninjured arm with purpose to pick up objects."

Jessie can take a few steps with a walker and has limited movement in his reattached arm.

"He is learning to move better than he was able to for months," Mrs. Flosenzier said. "Actually he can hear people coming through the front door, and he'll start making sounds if it's somebody he recognizes."

Mrs. Flosenzier, 48, a chemist, and her husband, Vance, 39, a chemical engineer, were interviewed Tuesday on NBC's Today Show and ABC's Good Morning America.

Jessie's parents, David and Claire Arbogast, have declined interview requests. They are caring for their son at their home in Ocean Springs, Miss.

"Jessie makes progress every day," Mrs. Flosenzier said. "He's doing well physically. He's very healthy. His dad has not gone back to work. It is a full-time job for him taking care of Jessie. He has a long road ahead of him."

Dr. Tim Livingston, a pediatric neurologist with Pensacola's Sacred Heart Hospital, said it is hard to say whether Jessie will continue to improve. "I really don't consider this a vegetative state, since he appears communicative."

The loss of oxygen and nutrients caused damage similar to that suffered by people who almost drown, said Dr. Rex Northup, a pediatric intensive care specialist with Nemours Children's Clinic who also treated Jessie.

"Most of those children will have progressed pretty much to their maximal recovery at about a year," Northup said. "You never say never, and you never say always, because there are always some exceptions."

Livingston said Jessie probably never will remember what happened to him.

The attack touched off a media frenzy last year dubbed the summer of sharks.

It all began in the twilight hours of July 6, 2001. The Flosenziers had taken their two children and four nieces and nephews to Langdon Beach on Santa Rosa Island, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Jessie's uncle, Vance, was onshore watching the sunset, feeding time for bull sharks. He heard his son, Brendan, then 10, yell "Shark!" He turned and saw the dark creature with Jessie's arm in its jaws about 15 yards out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Jessie was yelling, "He's got me! Get him off me!"

His uncle wrestled the 61/2-foot bull shark barehanded out of the water and enabled others to retrieve the boy's severed arm. On the beach, Mrs. Flosenzier administered CPR to keep her nephew alive.

"I couldn't believe what was happening. It was just a nightmare at that point," said Mr. Flosenzier. "I remember the large pool of blood and the screams. I remember a lot of the details of that event.

"We heard my son yell 'shark,' and we heard Jessie scream, and we turned around and looked and saw a large pool of blood. I started running to the water right away not knowing what it was."

Mr. Flosenzier grabbed the shark by the tail and pulled it away from Jessie, and as he did the boy's arm came off in the shark's mouth.

"There were just not really a lot of options what to do. It didn't seem like a good idea to grab the other end of the shark," he said.

Mrs. Flosenzier was honored by the Red Cross in May for continuing CPR and other lifesaving techniques to keep her nephew alive.

"We just did the best that we could. It doesn't feel heroic," she said. "In some ways looking at Jessie and knowing the way he was before, it doesn't feel like it was enough."

Mr. Flosenzier said he doesn't feel guilty about what happened, but he adds: "I feel responsible."

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