By Earyel Bowleg

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

Shark attack survivor Mike Raich has revealed how he narrowly escaped serious injury when a bite to his arm missed major nerves and arteries by inches.

One of the shark’s teeth was even left embedded in his wound - a souvenir of a scary encounter for the US Marine veteran who was spear fishing off Spanish Cay when the shark bit the back of his left arm while he was bringing a fish to the surface.

Mr Raich, 66, who has a home in Green Turtle Cay, told The Tribune: “When I was bringing the fish up to the surface from behind, the shark must have been behind me because he grazed my body before he bit me a couple times and then he got me.

“He came around on my left side, and to protect my body, I put my arm down and that’s when he grabbed the back of my arm.” 

The attack, he said, lasted only a few seconds but left a deep wound that required surgery to reattach his tricep. Based on the size of the wound, doctors believe he was bitten by a four to five foot Reef Shark.

Mr Raich, from West Palm Beach, Florida, purchased a home in The Bahamas three years ago as part of his retirement plans. He has been visiting the islands since he was 13 and learned to spear fish in the same waters where he was attacked.

Although he has encountered sharks before, this was the first time he had ever been attacked.

“You’re kind of in a daze,” he said of the experience. “It wasn’t the pain I was so much worried about as the bleeding. There’s just a lot of blood loss. It was painful, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t unbearable pain.” 

Mr Raich, whose two sons were with him in the water, while his wife was in their boat, explained that it’s not blood, but movement in the water — particularly shaking — that attracts sharks during spearfishing.

“We see sharks all the time and we’re careful,” he added. “Usually we stop our spear fishing and get out of the water and we move because we know the risks of spear fishing around sharks. It’s a no no, we don’t do it. This one just caught me by surprise because I just didn’t see it.”

After the encounter, Mr Raich made it back to the boat with help from his sons, where he received first aid. His wife radioed for help as they rushed to shore.

Boaters at the dock assisted him, applying a new tourniquet and transporting him by high-speed boat to Coopers Town. 

From there, police took him to the local clinic, where he received pain medication and antibiotics. Once stabilised, he was airlifted from Treasure Cay Airport to Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) later that same day. There, doctors surgically cleaned and closed the wound and removed a shark tooth embedded in his arm.

After receiving a positive prognosis, Mr Raich was discharged and flew back to the US on a private plane the next day, July 16. He was admitted to St Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Dr Robert Borrego, a trauma and critical care surgeon at St Mary’s, said Mr Raich lost a moderate amount of blood — about three-quarters of a litre.

He underwent two surgeries: the first, a more meticulous procedure lasted about two and a half hours, while the second took roughly one hour. In total, he spent three to four hours in surgery.

“It wasn’t a severe bite that would have amputated the arm because it did not go through the bone, but it was severe enough to cause damage to the muscles,” said Dr Borrego. “He was very, very lucky that he didn’t have a major vascular or nerve injury and that was just a matter of luck that the shark didn’t sever the vessels.”

Dr Borrego noted that while he did not remove the shark tooth himself, it had been embedded in the muscle near a dangerous spot.

“It would have been nothing, per se, but in another location, it was close by the elbow, it’s with a major blood vessel divided into another three blood vessels, and the tooth was close to those blood vessels, so if it would have been a couple of inches to the right or to the left it could have hit the blood vessel.”

Mr Raich was discharged from hospital on July 23 and returned to The Bahamas soon after. He hopes to get back in the water in the coming weeks.

Dr Borrego said he should soon be able to resume normal activity.