Shark that attacked boy was thin, biologist says

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 11, 2001

PENSACOLA -- The bull shark that attacked 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast on Friday might have been driven close to shore by intense hunger.

"I've never seen a bull shark that skinny," said fisheries biologist Buck Buchanan of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

"The shark didn't look like he was in great shape."

Surgeons reattached Jessie Arbogast's right arm after it was bitten off by the bull shark in the attack. He also suffered a severe leg wound and was nearly drained of blood, which may have caused brain damage.

Jessie remained in critical but stable condition at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital, and doctors say he is in a coma.

He has gotten past the riskiest period for brain swelling and tests so far show no significant brain injury, Dr. Tim Livingston said at a news conference.

"That does not mean that he has a definitely good prognosis neurologically, but that at this point he appears to be stable and not worsening," Livingston said.

"He likely has suffered a brain injury and that very well could be significant for him," he said. "We do have evidence that his brain is not functioning correctly."

Bull sharks can survive up to two weeks without food by living on oil stored in their livers. The animal that attacked Jessie at Gulf Islands National Seashore, just west of Pensacola, might have been reaching the end of its reserves.

The 7-foot, 250-pound bull shark was wrestled to the shore by his uncle, Vance Flosenzier, a triathlete from Mobile, Ala.

Flosenzier, and his wife, Diana, then tied off his arm and leg with beach towels to try to control the bleeding and began chest compressions.

A tape recording of a 911 call the uncle made indicated he initially thought his nephew had lost his right leg as well as the arm. A ranger shot the shark and pried its jaw open with a police baton while a volunteer firefighter pulled the arm out of the shark's gullet.

Bull sharks are one of the three most dangerous species, along with whites and tiger sharks. They feed on sea turtles, which were nesting in the area at the time of the attack.

Doctors said the blood loss after the attack harmed virtually every organ in Jessie's body, causing kidney failure and raising the possibility of brain damage.

The Ocean Springs, Miss., boy was undergoing more dialysis and surgery Tuesday to place temporary grafts made from pig skin on his leg wound, said Dr. Rex Northup, a pediatric physician for Nemours Children's Clinic who oversees the intensive care unit at Sacred Heart.

Tests showed brain activity akin to deep sleep or light coma, Livingston said.

Brain swelling most commonly occurs three to five days after blood-loss injury. If he gets beyond five to seven days without brain swelling, then doctors said they will be more optimistic about his chances.

Jessie's neighbors say he is likely to tell his friends to "suck it up" if they get hurt. But he also lives that philosophy.

"You'd have to ask him if he was hurt," said Vincent Burke, program director for the city Recreation Department. "He has a high tolerance for pain. He always has. He never cried when he got hurt. The only time he cries is when he's going to get in trouble with his parents."

Two years ago, riding the school bus to his after-school camp, Jessie stuck his little finger in a hole inside the bus and it wouldn't come out.

While the adults sped into action and the Fire Department was on the way, Jessie was calm, said Recreation Office Manager Geri Straight. "The adults would panic, but he never even got upset. The Fire Department came and sawed a part off the bus and got his finger out."

Shark attacks are virtually unheard of on the stretch Gulf Coast where Jessie was struck because the most common species there -- Atlantic sharpnose and blacktip -- are almost never associated with attacks.

For the past two drought years, fishermen reported catching sharks off coast beaches and in bays and bayous where they are rarely seen. After rains this summer, sharks on the coast apparently have moved out to their more common territories in the Mississippi Sound and beyond the barrier islands.

- The Biloxi, Miss., Sun Herald and Associated Press contributed to this report.

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