Teen girl loses leg in shark attack 10 minutes from where boy was mauled a day earlier
A teenage girl had her leg bitten off by a tiger shark in a horrifying scene a day after an 11-year-old boy endured a similar attack at another beach just a few miles away.
Disturbing video of the incident shows Marcela Vitoria de Lima Santos, 19, being dragged to shore by a lifeguard and bystanders after she was bitten, eerily resembling footage captured at the nearby beach during the shark mauling a day earlier.
Once on shore, an off-duty doctor rushed to her side and tied a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding on her badly bitten leg before she was rushed to Hospital da Restauracao, a fast-thinking move hospital director Petrus de Andrade Lima said saved her life.
“For patients who are experiencing such severe hemorrhages where there is an imminent risk to life, we have to stop the bleeding, and in the case of limbs, especially amputated limbs like hers, the tourniquet saves lives.”
Lima said the badly injured woman’s leg was amputated at the thigh.
“She will possibly still need more blood. She was in profound hemorrhagic shock, received blood, will likely need more, and there is a second concern that all these patients who suffer an animal bite face, which is the risk of infection,” he said.