Remember that night I was telling you guys about my brother's accident with his leg?  This is the same injury that he sustained.  Reading the article makes me think again about how lucky he was.  Literally lucky.  Nothing else explains it. http://www.msnbc.com/news/622987.asp

DebbiR

10-year-old dies after shark attack
Suffered severe blood loss after bites on thigh, leg; officials keep beach open

NBC NEWS AND WIRE REPORTS
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Sept. 2 —  A 10-year-old boy died early Sunday from wounds he suffered after being bitten in the leg by a shark while standing on a sandbar just off Virginia’s coast. It was the latest in a string of shark attacks on the East Coast this summer, but Virginia Beach officials said they would not close their beaches because no other sharks were spotted.

DAVID PELTIER, from Richmond, was standing on a sandbar 50 feet from shore in about 4 feet of water at about 6 p.m. when a shark bit the boy, Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf told a news conference Sunday. The attack at Sandbridge Beach, a remote coastal community just south of Virginia Beach, was the first known shark attack in the area in 30 years.

       David was bitten on his left leg and thigh by an 8-foot shark, said Ed Brazle, division chief for the city’s Emergency Medical Services.

       The boy’s father, Richard Peltier, was surfing nearby and hit the shark on the head and freed his son, Brazle said. Richard Peltier then carried his son ashore, where witnesses and lifeguards administered first aid. The boy’s two brothers, who also had their surfboards in the water, cried hysterically, witnesses said.

      
ARTERY SEVERED
       The boy did not lose his leg, but the main artery in his thigh was severed, resulting in significant blood loss, a spokesperson for Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk said early Sunday.

       He was first hospitalized at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital following the attack, then transferred to the trauma unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, and around 10:15 p.m. was taken to Children’s Hospital, where he died at 3:45 ET.

       Richard Peltier was treated for a hand injury that occurred during the rescue.
       Sandbridge was closed Saturday after the attack but Virginia Beach officials reopened it Sunday morning. More than 40 EMS divers and a Jet Ski patrolled the waters, said Bruce Edwards, director of the city’s Emergency Medical Services.

       Scientists with the city’s Virginia Marine Science Museum flew over the beaches in a police helicopter but didn’t spot any sharks.

       “Since there were no sightings of a shark, and since this is an extremely rare event ... we decided that it was safe and reasonable to keep the beaches open,” said Edwards.

       But beachgoers were wary.
       “I’d rather give the shark a little time to get further down the coast,” said Debbie Morris, 39, of Virginia Beach, who refused to allow her 11-year-old daughter into the water.

       The Peltier family said they did not want to be interviewed and asked that the media and others respect their privacy while they grieved the loss of their son. The family also requested that no other medical information be released by the hospital.

       They also said they deeply appreciated the expressions of concern, sympathy and support they have received from the community, and asked that prayers on their behalf continue.

       “I speak for the entire city of Virginia Beach when I say how terribly saddened I am by this horrible accident,” Mayor Oberndorf said Saturday.

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