Lake Macquarie shark attack: First aid by victim’s doctor wife helped save him

A witness to a weekend shark attack has told how she heard the victim’s screams as his doctor wife applied a tourniquet to his severely lacerated arm.

A woman who rushed to the aid of a man who was savagely attacked by a shark at Lake Macquarie has described the “horrendous screams” as the swimmer was dragged to shore and revealed his first words as he lay there bleeding.

Judy Jones, 71, was having a drink with friends at her waterfront home at Yarrawonga Park when she heard the first cries for help about 6.30pm on Saturday.

Emergency services treat the shark attack victim on Saturday. Picture: TNV

“The screaming, it was horrendous actually,” Ms Jones said. “(They were saying) ‘Call an ambulance’. We just took off and ran straight down. By the time we got down there he was out of the water and his wife was holding his arm together.

“His arm … there wasn’t much of it together still … (There was) a lot of blood. His wife is a doctor so she was incredibly efficient.”

Police were told 58-year-old marine biologist Richard Burbury and his wife, 56, were swimming about 40m offshore when the man was bitten on the left arm. His wife helped drag him to shore.

Ms Jones said she ran home to get a first aid kit and then attempted to put a tourniquet around the wound.

Judy Jones (right), with Lauren Miller, was having a drink with friends at her waterfront home at Yarrawonga Park when the first cries for help were heard about 6.30pm and she ran to help. Picture: Lachlan Leeming

“(His wife) was holding his arm together and I was just trying to put (the tourniquet) around it. It was just bone and flesh.

“He was very calm and conscious. He said ‘It was the size of me.’”

Ms Jones quickly rejected any notion of being a ‘hero’.

“I don’t feel like I saved his life or anything like that, if anyone saved him it would be his wife,” she said.

Ms Jones and neighbour Lauren Miller said dozens of people swam in the area throughout the day as the mercury nudged 30C.

It is believed to be the first shark attack in Lake Macquarie in decades.

NSW Ambulance Inspector Grahame Rathbone said bystanders did a great job applying a tourniquet. “This was potentially lifesaving,” he said.

The man was airlifted to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital for surgery.