Add The New York Post on Google A 40-year-old was viciously attacked by a shark during what was supposed to be an enjoyable diving excursion — but was saved when his quick-thinking friend jumped in to rescue him.
Boat captain Jacob Johnson was diving with three others on Tuesday, 30 miles off Florida’s Emerald Coast, when, during their last dive of the day, a bull shark bit his friend.
“I was helping one of the other divers get undressed when I heard ‘Help help. I’ve been bit’,” Johnson recalled to Fox 10 News.
A 40-year-old diver is recovering in a Pensacola, Florida, hospital after a shark attack Tuesday about 30 miles off the coast. FOX10 After Johnson heard “the sense of urgency, and remarkably, calmness, that was in his voice,” he thought it was a minor accident at first.
“I was looking over the side of the boat to make fun of him; I thought he got bit by a trigger fish,” he explained. “And he’s surrounded in blood.”
His unidentified friend, who was badly savaged on both forearms, could not lift himself back onto the boat due to the injury.
“There was no time for emotions or critical thinking as far as risk analysis — I just jumped in,” said Johnson, who quickly removed the man’s diving gear and was able to push him back into the boat.
The rest of the group “went into instinct mode,” Johnson said, and also contributed to the rescue effort.
“Everybody was helping. One guy was getting his shirt off to tourniquet his arm,” he recalled.
Boat captain Jacob Johnson was diving with three others on Tuesday when a shark bit his friend. FOX10 Another man happened to have WoundSeal, a powder that stops minor external bleeding, which his wife had packed for him, so was able to use that.
They slathered it on both his arms, which slowed the bleeding, and then applied a tourniquet with zip ties.
“I pulled it tight and said, ‘How’s that?’ and he said, ‘I think it’s too tight.’ So I pulled it again,” Johnson said, “You’re not bleeding out on my watch.”
The group continued talking to the victim to keep him calm and he remained conscious while the Coast Guard arrived, rushed him to shore, and airlifted him to hospital.
The injured man is expected to make a full recovery, despite the shark tearing into an artery in one of his forearms and the other needing dozens of stitches.
Johnson, who said his friend has already been through one surgery, prayed “the whole way back,” while getting his hurt friend to safety.
“I was praying to God that we made it back safely, that we could mitigate as much damage as we could to his arms, and that he was gonna get back to his family,” he said.
“Every one of our prayers were not only heard, but answered.”
