Man survives shark attack while spearfishing in the Bahamas
By Rachel Williams
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FORT PIERCE, Florida (WPBF) — A Florida man is recovering after surviving a shark attack while spearfishing off the coast of the Bahamas during a fishing-trip-turned-nightmare.
Eddie Jarmakowicz from Riviera Beach was diving during a three-day fishing trip to Grand Cay on Aug. 16 when he was bitten by a shark. The attack occurred just offshore and left him with serious injuries to his left hand.
“I never saw the shark that attacked me, but my wrist was hanging down, and I could see flesh, so obviously that was a concern. I swam back to the boat, and the whole rescue started from then,” Jarmakowicz said.
There were four people in his group at the time — two in the water and two aboard the boat. The other diver in the water said the type of shark that bit Jarmakowicz was a reef shark about 6 feet long.
He recalls, “It came from behind me, turned and grabbed the fish, and unfortunately got my hand as well, and then it swam behind me and my friend tried to poke it away with his spear a couple of times, and then it swam off.”
Because they were offshore, it took them about 45 minutes to return to land. The local emergency facility on the island wasn’t equipped to treat his injuries.
“Then we started trying to make plans to get back to the United States. Fortunately, there was someone who had a plane on Big Grand that offered to fly me home. From Grand to Stuart, Florida was the closest route, so we flew here. I was trauma-hawked to the hospital,” he said.
When Jarmakowicz arrived at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce, his hand had been tightly wrapped in a tourniquet for more than four hours. Trauma surgeon Dr. Aleta Paschal said the extent of the injury was immediately alarming.
“He had a major injury where we consider it a mangled extremity, multiple muscles that were exposed, tendons that were involved. I could see down to his bone and his forearm. I slowly brought down the tourniquet just to see if the vascular flow was affected, and thankful to God it wasn’t,” Paschal said.
After losing about a liter of blood, Jarmakowicz underwent emergency surgery. Due to the complexity of the wound, Paschal consulted with a plastic surgeon to assist with the operation.
“We looked at all the tendons, and it was a very complex repair. I believe eight tendons that needed to be repaired in his forearm. There were also smaller tendons, because the shark had another bite towards the wrist,” Paschal said.
Jarmakowicz was discharged from the hospital the next day. Doctors say he’s fortunate not only to have survived but also to still have movement in all of his fingers.
As he begins a six- to eight-month physical therapy recovery, Jarmakowicz is already thinking about his return to the water with added precautions, sharing what he learned with others.
“Be conscious of sharks in the area, be conscious of barracudas in the area, have a tourniquet on your boat, and have a way to contact emergency care, whether that’s a satellite phone or another phone,” he said.
Doctors called the outcome a miracle, given the severity of the injury and how quickly he received care after being flown back to the U.S.
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