Shark attack boy 'critical'

The shark was wrestled to shore by the boy's uncle

An eight-year-old boy whose right arm was bitten off by a shark in Florida is still in a critical condition and showing signs of brain damage, doctors say.

The boy's arm was retrieved from the predator's throat and reattached by surgeons following the attack on Friday.

But doctors at the Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, say the boy - Jessie Arbogast - suffered damage to his brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs due to extreme blood loss.

In terms of circulating blood, I think he was fairly empty

Dr Jack Tyson

He has been undergoing dialysis since suffering kidney failure on Sunday and has not been able to talk to family members.

The boy arrived at the hospital with virtually no pulse or blood pressure and his brain and organs were deprived of blood and oxygen. He required more than 30 pints (14 litres) of blood during surgery.

Jessie was playing in knee-deep water at the Gulf Islands National Seashore in northwest Florida at dusk on Friday when a seven-foot (2.1-metre) bull shark bit off his arm between the elbow and shoulder. One of his legs was also severely gashed.

'Tough situation'

"It's going to be a very tough situation to pull him through," said the hospital's head of paediatric critical care, Dr Rex Northup.

Jessie Arbogast suffered massive blood loss

"It is an unusual type of event for someone to go through full cardiopulmonary arrest for 30 to 45 minutes and survive."

He said the boy was opening his eyes and blinking but was not coherent or able to follow commands.

Jessie's uncle carried him to shore, where relatives and beachgoers gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation until he was flown by helicopter to the hospital.

The uncle then wrestled the shark to the beach, where a park ranger shot it four times in the head, causing it to relax its jaws.

Arm recovered

The ranger pried the shark's mouth open with a police baton while volunteer fire-fighter Tony Thomas reached in and pulled the arm from the shark's throat using a pair of forceps, park officials said.

People under attack should kick, punch or try to jab the shark in the eyes or gills

Emergency workers put the arm on ice and it was reattached during 11 hours of surgery on Saturday.

Dr Ian Rogers, the plastic surgeon who reattached the arm, said the wound was "remarkably clean" for a shark bite and he was hopeful that Jessie could regain near normal use of the arm within 18 months.

Jessie, from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had been on holiday in Florida with his family.

The International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida confirmed 79 unprovoked shark attacks on humans worldwide in 2000, and more than a third of those occurred in Florida waters.

Ten of the attacks were fatal, including one in Florida.

Odds game

International Shark Attack File director George Burgess has said that attacks are an odds game based on how many hours you are in the water.

He said: "Florida has a huge number of people in the water and the number of person-hours in the water is probably higher than anywhere in the world."

People who come under attack should kick, punch or try to jab the shark in the eyes or gills, Mr Burgess said.

Gary Violetta, curator of fishes at Sea World Orlando, said: "There is a much better chance of getting struck by lightning than being attacked by a shark."