Shark victim keeps spirits high
Associated PressBut the Tennessee teenager, who lost a leg, says he doesn't want to go to the beach again.
Published July 1, 2005
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Sixteen-year-old Craig Hutto, who lost his right leg after a shark attack, is alert, has a vivid memory of what happened and even has been joking about it, his parents said Thursday.
Roger and Lou Ann Hutto also credited their oldest son, Brian, 25, and other tourists - including a doctor, three nurses and a paramedic - with saving Craig's life by pulling him from the shark's jaws and preventing further blood loss.
"Words will never express how grateful we are, how thankful we are," Roger Hutto said. "If it hadn't been for those people, I don't think we would be standing here today."
Craig was attacked while he and his brother were fishing waist-deep in the Gulf of Mexico about 60 feet from shore Monday. Two days earlier a 14-year-old girl was killed by a bull shark at another Florida Panhandle beach. Authorities also think a bull shark attacked Craig.
The boy, a high school baseball and basketball player from Lebanon, Tenn., was listed in stable condition at Bay Medical Center.
The Huttos said their son has kept his spirits high and even joked with his mother, an accountant, about their next vacation.
"He said he didn't want to go to the beach again," she recounted. "I said, "You know Daddy always wants to go out West, so we can go on a ranch.' He said "Mama, I'll probably get kicked in the head by a horse."'
She said he also joked that losing his right leg instead of his left was "one good thing," because he had suffered a severe sprain to his right ankle at a basketball camp.
The leg had to be amputated because the shark ripped most of the muscle, nerves and blood vessels from his thigh, doctors said.
Craig is scheduled for another operation today to repair damage to his hands.
"He's got a pretty vivid memory of what happened, as we all do," said the teen's father, a lawyer for the Tennessee Department of Safety. "That's something he recognizes he's going to have to deal with."
Craig's older brother Brian fought off the shark, preventing worse injuries, and escaped without a scratch, his mother said.
"Something bumped him, and he immediately kind of backpedaled," Brian Hutto said Thursday on ABC's Good Morning America . He then saw the fin and realized it was a shark.
"I grabbed hold and started going back to shore," he said. "I remember at one point grabbing Craig's arm and I remember hitting (the shark) at least once."
Mike Jones of Tallahassee was the first person to go out and help Brian Hutto fend off the shark. His wife, Karen, a nurse, tended to Craig on the beach. Nurse Holly Baker of Athens, Tenn., also came to his aid. Craig's parents also went into the water, but the shark let go as they got to him.
Others helped, but so far have not identified themselves to the Huttos.
Craig remained conscious until receiving anesthesia for surgery.
Monday's attack came two days after Jamie Marie Daigle of Gonzales, La., was killed as she swam off Miramar Beach near Destin, about 80 miles to the west of where Craig was injured.
Lou Ann Hutto said her best friend called to tell her about the attack as they were driving Saturday to Cape San Blas, about 40 miles southeast of Panama City.
"She said "Be careful,"' she recalled. "We thought it was just an isolated event, but we talked about it."
The Huttos said their son plans to continue participating in athletics after he gets a prosthetic leg.
Bait used by the Huttos and others fishing at Cape San Blas probably attracted the shark, said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.
"Those are very powerful stimuli for sharks and the waters there on Cape San Blas are murky so visibility is poor," Burgess said.
"You had a bad combination of food in the water adjacent to a deep water situation, very similar to what happened to the young lady in Destin," Burgess said.