Shark attack victim to undergo surgery to save savaged leg
The Tasmanian victim of the Whitsundays shark attacks is to have surgery in Brisbane today to try to save her savaged leg.
The Tasmanian victim of the Whitsundays shark attacks is to have surgery in Brisbane today to try to save her savaged leg.
Justine Barwick, 46, was under sedation at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, with good vital signs, and there were plans to operate on her leg today, her boss, Douglass Doherty said this morning.
Mr Doherty, in contact with Ms Barwick’s husband, Craig, who is by her side, and other relatives, including the couple’s two daughters, Sarah and Kate, said the family was being “stoic”.
“She was moved to Brisbane yesterday to receive a high level of care and to see vascular and plastic surgeons and today she’s going in for some surgery on trying to save her right leg,” Mr Doherty told The Australian.
“At this point, she’s still under sedation, because of moving in and out of surgery, and predominantly to maintain pain relief. They’re still working to save the leg.”
Her vital signs were “fine” but there was a need with any such trauma to guard against secondary complications.
“I haven’t heard the word ‘confident’ yet from anyone and the reality with any trauma of this sort … is secondary complication,” he said.
“We don’t envisage any complications and at this stage it’s all about maintaining a competent blood supply to the limb and saving the limb.”
Mr Doherty, chief executive of Family Based Care Tasmania, where Ms Barwick works as an operations manager in Burnie, said her elderly parents were “stressed” but the family was generally holding up well. “Craig is coping quite well and the girls are being stoic,” he said.
Ms Barwick was mauled by a shark near Cid Harbour on Wednesday; the same location where 12-year-old Hannah Papps was bitten on the leg less than 24 hours later.
The Victorian girl owes her life to on-the-spot treatment by a holidaying veterinarian.
In a repeat of Wednesday’s life-saving intervention by emergency doctor John Hadock — who came to the rescue of Ms Barwick after she was attacked near his yacht — the unnamed vet was on a nearby boat when the girl was bitten.
Hannah Papps, who was holidaying with her parents and two siblings, suffered extensive injury to her upper leg and lost a significant amount of blood.
“The vet was on another yacht and got to the girl quickly enough to give her critical treatment … it made the difference,’’ a government source said last night.
She underwent surgery last night at Mackay Hospital to save her leg.
The Papps family has given heartfelt thanks to those involved in rescuing their daughter.
Hannah was this evening in the Queensland Children’s Hospital, on Brisbane’s southside, in a critical but stable condition.
“We would like to thank everyone who has helped and cared for Hannah, including the police, emergency sevices and the hospital teams,” her parents said in a statement.
“We ask that everyone, including the media, respect our family’s privacy during this very difficul time so we can focus our energies on Hannah’s recovery.”
Hannah’s father, David Papps, is an engineer originally from Christchurch in New Zealand, according to TVNZ. The family now lives in Victoria.
Queensland Ambulance Service operations manager Tracey Eastwick said Hannah was bitten just below the groin and suffered significant blood loss from severed arteries. “As you can imagine they’re fairly large wounds with artery and bones, vessels, large haemorrhage,” Ms Eastwick said.
Holiday-makers in the area yesterday said they had heard unconfirmed reports of sharks being seen there in recent weeks.
The attacks prompted the Queensland government to deploy new drum lines designed to catch sharks around Cid Harbour, where people were being warned to stay out of the water.
Sea World’s director of marine sciences, Trevor Long, said it was difficult to know what type of sharks were behind the attacks.
“There are a number of sharks up there that are capable of this type of injury,” Dr Long said. “I suppose at the top of the list would be the tiger shark. You get bull sharks that go through there — we get bull sharks that go right through to Cairns — and we’ve got black-tipped sharks and white-tipped sharks.”
Dr Long said it was rare to have two attacks within such a short space of time. “You’d have to say it’s a relatively safe area from past history, because the area’s utilised quite heavily by sailors and boaties and charter boats — and people swim and snorkel in the area — and we really haven’t had an incident (in many years),” he said.
The quick actions by fellow holiday-makers mirrored the life-saving work of Dr Hadock for Ms Barwick a day earlier.
Dr Hadock was on the water, taking a break from his job as an emergency doctor at Mackay Base Hospital, when he heard cries for help from a neighbouring boat.
He found Ms Barwick lying on the deck and her husband desperately trying to stem the bleeding.
“I guess it was one of those situations where everything came together, the poor woman had been helped back on to her boat by her husband and her friends, who applied absolutely perfect first aid,” Dr Hadock said. “I was a little worried I was going to find severe bleeding still going, but they had been able to stop the bleeding.
“Justine was very, very ill.”
RACQ CQ Rescue Helicopter crewman Ben McCauley said Dr Hadock and the other boat passengers had saved her life.
He said Ms Barwick had “quite a big chunk of leg taken” and had suffered arterial bleeding.
Douglass Doherty, chief executive of Family Based Care Tasmania, Ms Barwick’s employer, said yesterday: “Justine is a fighter — a fit, resilient woman who is an outstanding leader … these intrinsic attributes will serve her well in her recovery.”
Alissa Winter, who has been sailing in the Whitsundays with her husband and two daughters, said they left Cid Harbour shortly before Wednesday’s attack.
“My husband heard at the sailing club a couple of weeks ago that there had been a couple of shark sightings at Cid Harbour, but nothing official,” Ms Winter said.
She said the harbour was “very well protected”, but the water was murkier in Cid Harbour than other places in the Whitsundays.
The attacks prompted the Queensland government to have three new baited drum lines installed in Cid Harbour.
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