Man bitten by great white shark in California goes home

SALINAS, Calif. – A man who was bitten by a white shark off the central coast of California near Salinas last month was discharged from hospital on Wednesday.

Steve Bruemmer, 62, was discharged from Natividad de Salinas Medical Center after spending three weeks in hospital care and rehabilitation. after he was bitten by a shark while swimming outside Pacific Grove near Monterey.

Bruemmer was applauded by hospital workers as he came out in a wheelchair, wearing a blue T-shirt printed with the words, “Shark Attack Survivor.”

In an emotional video before he was kicked out amid applause and applause from hospital workers lining the road, Bruemmer said from his hospital bed that the shark would bite him in the thighs and abdomen and then “spit on me.”

“I’m not a seal,” said Bruemmer, a retired professor at Monterey Peninsula College. “He took me for a seal. We are not his food.”

“He was looking at me, right next to me,” he said. “I thought I could bite myself again, so I pushed him with my hand and kicked him and he left.”

The shark came within a millimeter of cutting an important artery, Nicholas Rottler, the center’s trauma surgeon, told KSBW-TV a day after the June 22 attack.

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However, no significant damage was done to his bones or organs.

“It could have been a lot, a lot worse, he couldn’t get out of the water,” Rottler said.

After screaming for help, Bruemmer said he was rescued by two paddleboarders – a nurse and a police officer – who approached and a surfer who took two boards from the beach to reach him.

“The three of them in the bloody water got me on the surfboard and took me to the beach” despite the possibility that the shark was still circling, Bruemmer said, calling them heroes.

“I remember lying in the ambulance and the guy said,‘ two minutes … we’re two minutes out. In two minutes, everything will change, you will be attended to by 15 people who will shake you, pinch you and ask you questions. This is the best place you can be. ”

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Bruemmer said he was taken to a trauma center to be operated on and received 28 units of blood. He thanked the medical workers and blood donors who had saved his life in the emotional video, choking near the end.

Police used an aerial drone to search for the shark but did not see it.

Shark attacks in California are rare. However, Tomas Butterfield, 42, died in a shark attack in Morro Bay, central California, last Christmas night.

Shark attacks are rare in California

It was the only unprovoked deadly shark attack in the United States last year.

The area was sectioned for bathers after the incident last month. Pacific Grove police were monitoring the water using an aerial drone but the shark was not seen.

Bruemmer is an experienced swimmer and Rottler said this helped in his recovery: “Being in very good physical condition before the shark bite made his functional recovery easier. His upper body strength and heart resistance allowed him to improve faster than most patients.