Shark Attack Surfer: Saved By 'Beautiful Wave'
L I S M O R E, Australia, Feb. 5 -- A surfer whose leg was torn open in a shark attack said today that a "beautiful wave" carried him to safety on shore.
Mark Butler, 40, was surfing alone on Sunday about 240 feet from the shore at Brooms Head in northern New South Wales state when a shark ripped a hole in his left leg.
"I thought I was going to die," he said from his hospital bedafter surgeons closed the wound with 80 stitches. "The water wasinstantly full of blood and I just thought it's going to come backand have a second go at me and I'll die here now."
But at that moment, "a wave came, a beautiful wave, that justtook me right to the sand," he said.
Staggering to Safety
Once on the beach, Butler tied his surf board's leg rope around his thigh to stem the bleeding and staggered 1,500 feet to find help.
Dr. Jack Ashworth, who treated Butler at a Lismore hospital, 530 miles north of Sydney, said Butler lost more than a quart of blood and was lucky to be alive.
"I would have expected [Butler] to collapse in the water and not make it back to shore," Alsworth said.
There have been about 19 shark attacks in Australia in the past five years.
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