Florida shark attack: Surfer details 'bloody mess' as four-foot Blacktip brutally mangles him
HOBE SOUND, FLORDIA: A man named Bert Krebs detailed his horrifying encounter on Tuesday, February 28, after he was bitten by a shark. Krebs initially thought the shark was a rock in the waters of the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge while surfing on February 19. He said, "I’m grateful that I’m here and blessed that it wasn’t worse.”
During a news conference at St Mary's Medical Center, Krebs, who saw two sharks that morning, narrated the moments during the shark attack by saying, "I was getting back up on my board and I was - my arms were over the board and the water was just about this deep and I think I was kicking to get back up overboard. I thought I kicked the rock or something. And all of a sudden there was a bite, two seconds later it was done. It bit me I even pulled my leg away or it let go. And I knew right away when it happened. I knew it was a bite and I yelled 'shark bite' to my friends," states CBS12.
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'I looked down and saw the bloody mess'
He said, "I paddled in and my friends came in with me and then I looked down and saw the bloody mess and they were like, well, we gotta get you out of here. And so my friend Chris actually piggyback me up the beach and over the dune. And he had just had a knee surgery not long ago and I'm like 'Chris, you shouldn't be carrying me and he was like I'm carrying you'." His friend Chris carried him out to North Beach Road where off-duty Boynton Beach Firefighter, Kyle Davidson, was waiting with a towel, water, and gauze.
Krebs said, "I laid down on the road and he (Davidson) washed it out and wrapped it in gauze and then we just got awaited that his partner and I got to thank Kyle and his partner because they were instrumental in just keeping me calm." And added, "I passed out apparently in the ambulance. I think my blood pressure dropped and it kind of freaked out."
'Bitten by four-foot black tip shark'
His surgeon, Dr Faris Azar, believes it was a blacktip shark about four feet in length, reports The Palm Beach Post. Recalling Krebs' injury, Dr Azar said, “His foot was mangled and bleeding when he came in. The shark basically took a bite of the entire foot, and it seems like it slowly released and ultimately took the small toe-off at the end.” as per CBS12. He further said, "He was probably bitten by about a four-foot black tip shark if it had been a bull shark or something like that, he probably wouldn't have a foot so his foot was mangled and bleeding when he came in."
He further said, "With the research we've done here over the last decade regarding shark bites, we've been able to narrow antibiotics appropriately per its case. I haven’t seen an increase in shark bites lately, but they do come in numbers. We have one, so we will see if more follow.”
A total of 72 shark bites have been reported off Treasure Coast beaches since the year 1998, according to TCPalm. Out of which 70 were injured and two died.