Surfer with ‘catastrophic’ injuries from Australia shark attack walks to find help

A 29-year-old surfer who sustained serious injures in a shark attack off the coast of Australia paddled to shore and then walked to find help, according to media reports.

The man was reportedly surfing near D’Estrees Bay off Kangaroo Island when the incident occurred.

“I was sitting on my board when I felt a hit on my left side,” the surfer, identified by Australian network Nine News as Dion Lynch, reportedly said in a written statement. “It was like being hit by a truck.”

The surfer, who was bitten on his back, elbow and buttock, said he got a look at the shark before it swam away, according to The Advertiser, a South Australian newspaper.

After the attack, he got on his board and paddled back to shore, The Advertiser reported. Then he walked nearly 1,000 feet to find help.

Lynch was spotted by an off-duty paramedic, who drove him toward a hospital until an ambulance met them along the way, Nine News reported.

He said he was treated for “catastrophic bleeding, trauma and serious lacerations,” according to The Advertiser.

He thanked the paramedic, who said his injuries were “catastrophic.” It was “quite remarkable” he was able to find help help, the paramedic said, The Advertiser reported.

Eight people have died as a result of shark attacks in Australia this year, the most since 1929, The New York Times reported last month.

“There’s more than one shark expert who’s shaking their head right now, thinking, ‘What on earth is going on?’” said Culum Brown, a professor of marine biology at Macquarie University in Sydney, according to the Times.

While there have been more deaths, the number of unprovoked shark attacks — 20 — is not anything out of the ordinary, the newspaper reported.

“The fact that incidents result in fatalities — it’s probably just really bad luck,” said Phoebe Meagher, who manages a database that keeps track of interactions between humans and sharks, the Times reported.

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Surfer with ‘catastrophic’ injuries from Australia shark attack walks to find help."