A Florida fisherman says he came terrifyingly close to bleeding to death after a seven-foot shark bit him off Key West — and credits two nurses who happened to be nearby with saving his life.
David Daniel, 43, of Silver Springs, Florida, was fishing near a sandbar at Boca Grande Key Beach when the shark attacked, leaving him with a severe foot injury that nearly severed an artery.
“It looked like a six- or seven-foot nurse shark. It was cruising parallel on the beach line, and I started to move a little bit, and it turned and b-lined directly at me,” Daniel told WSVN.
“[It] snapped at the top of my foot and let go, realizing I wasn’t a fish or crab or whatever they wanted to eat.”
Speaking later from his hospital bed, Daniel described the frightening moment he believed he might not survive the shark bite.
“I looked down in the water, and there was so much blood in the water. I said, ‘There’s no way you’re getting off this beach,’” he told TODAY from his hospital bed in Miami, where he was airlifted after the Aug. 23 attack.
Help arrived almost immediately. Two boaters nearby — both nurses — rushed Daniel to shore and worked to control the bleeding as they waited for the U.S. Coast Guard to reach the scene.
“If it weren’t for them, I would 100% be dead on the beach. Grace to God that they were all medically trained people and nurses and EMTs,” Daniel said.
Chris Green, one of Daniel’s Good Samaritans, came forward after the attack.
“We did our job as nurses to help control the bleeding and get the limb elevated, and we hollered for somebody to call the Coast Guard,” Green told WSVN.
Daniel was successfully discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, and says he is in much better spirits.
“I’m pretty stable. I can’t really move around at all. My foot is in a boot, and it’s all wrapped up from the surgeries,” he said.
“Just my blood pressure’s acting a little funny because, you know, I just got attacked by a shark. So I’m kind of just trying to stay positive and think of all the good people that are helping me out and trying to stay in a good mindset and happy,” he added.
Daniel said his recovery is expected to take months, requiring lengthy time off work and extended physical therapy.
He doesn’t have medical insurance, and his friends created a GoFundMe for him to cover his expenses, which had raised more than half of its $16,000 target as of Monday.
