A man in Florida was bitten by a shark and returned to his home to await paramedics, according to audio of an emergency call.
The 39-year-old, who has not been publicly identified, was swimming on Tuesday off the coast of Siesta Key, a barrier island in southwest Florida located near Sarasota, when he was bitten by a shark. After walking home, a woman dialed 911.
“It’s an emergency,” the woman told the dispatcher. “He made it home, he was swimming in the ocean. … There’s blood all over my house.”
“He’s bleeding to death,” she added about the man, who was bitten on his hand and arm.
The woman in the audio of the 911 call assured the victim that “everything is going to be fine” before the 911 dispatcher walked her and another person through how to stymy the bleeding until paramedics arrived.
Sarasota County Fire Assistant Chief Carson Sanders told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that paramedics were dispatched shortly before 8:30 a.m. and arrived at the home at 8:35 a.m.
“When the medic unit arrived on scene, they called for a rescue unit (ambulance). Rescue 13 (Siesta Key) was dispatched and arrived within 4 minutes,” he said.
The victim of the shark bite was rushed to the hospital where he was treated for his wounds, although details about the severity of the bite are not available given patient privacy laws.
Shark bites are rare in southwest Florida. Sarasota County has only had seven unprovoked shark attacks in the past 138 years. It is unclear what type of shark bit the man.
