Teen faces shark during attack
2010-02-18 10:11
Port Elizabeth - A young surfer came face-to-face with the shark which bit his leg before he could get away from it.
Michal du Plessis, 19, said he and four friends went surfing at about 11:00 on Tuesday at the Yellow Sands resort near East London when he was attacked by the shark.
"He bit me and knocked me off my surfboard. Under the water, his face was right in front of my face.
"After that, I pushed myself out of the water, got back onto my board and yelled to the others: 'A shark has bitten me!' and then paddled furiously back to the beach," he said on Wednesday from his bed in St Dominic's Hospital in East London.
"The shark was about 3m long…I think it was a great white. I was bitten rather deeply right down to the bone, but fortunately no bones were broken or flesh was torn out," he said.
Quick-thinking friends
When he reached the rocks at the beach, two of his friends used a surfboard rope as tourniquet to stop the most serious bleeding.
The other two ran to fetch their bakkie. They rushed with him to a nearby pharmacy where a doctor was on duty. The doctor gave Du Plessis an injection for shock. An ambulance was on the scene within ten minutes to take him to hospital.
"They are all my heroes, they saved my life, I'm so proud of them," Du Plessis said about his quick-thinking friends.
His mother, Mariki Muller, was equally grateful to the friends.
"All of them have to go for counselling. Two of them saw how Michal was bitten, and the other friend, who carried him to the bakkie, said he would never forget the trail of blood."