A professional surfer survived an attack by a shark off of Australia’s East Coast Wednesday night.
Brett Connellan was surfing with a friend when the attack happened about 100 yards off shore.
His friend, Joel Trist, dragged Connellan onto his own board and brought him back to shore.
Connellan has serious bites on his thigh and hand.
Two off-duty nurses were on the beach and applied to a tourniquet to his leg.
A medevac chopper flew Connellan to a hospital 75 miles away in Sydney.
"Luckily there was two off-duty nurses on the beach that rendered immediate first aid to him, applying a leg rope tourniquet to his leg. So, that first aid at the scene was critical,” said Inspector Paul Allman of the New South Wales police.
"The first thing I saw was Brett getting thrashed around in the water and a terrible scream, I guess, and acting on instinct I just paddled as hard as I could towards him," said Trist, Connellan’s friend who rescued him from the attack.
"Obviously I knew what had happened and I said to him ‘What’s it like?’ and he said, ‘It’s not good,’" said Trist. "I said, ‘Quick, jump on my board’ and I grabbed him and got him on my board and we got stuck for a moment and then a wave ended up washing us in. So we were quite lucky," he added.
Connellan did not see the shark, and experts have been examining his would to determine its size and species.
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