Hope for shark attack boy

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

The eight-year-old boy whose right arm was bitten off by a shark in Florida is expected to live, although he remains in a light coma and critical condition, doctors said.

It was the most optimistic update yet on the condition of Jessie Arbogast, one week after the attack.

We have every reason to be encouraged

Dr Rob Patterson

"We are hopeful for a very good recovery," one of his doctors, Dr Ben Renfroe, said at a news conference on Friday.

"We are very excited about the progress he has made so far."

Another doctor, Dr Rob Patterson, said the boy was no longer in a deep coma.

"He is certainly responding to pain and deep stimulation, and we have every reason to be encouraged," he said.

Jessie has grimaced, opened his eyes and made slight body movements, doctors said. His pulse rate also goes up.

The boy's arm was retrieved from the predator's throat and reattached by surgeons following the attack a week ago.

Extreme blood loss

The boy suffered damage to his brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs due to extreme blood loss.

Jessie Arbogast suffered massive blood loss

He 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 north-west 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.

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.

Marathon surgery

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.

Ten people were killed in shark attacks around the world last year

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 he was hopeful 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.