On July 6, 2001, eight-year-old Jessie Arbogast was wading in knee-deep water near Pensacola, Florida, when a massive 7-foot-long, 200-pound bull shark suddenly attacked him. The shark violently tore off his right arm and a large chunk of his thigh in a brutal instant.His uncle, Vance Flosenzier, heard the terrifying screams, immediately ran into the water, grabbed the shark by its tail, and — fighting against the powerful, thrashing animal the entire way — dragged it backward onto the beach.By the time they got Jessie onto the sand, he had stopped breathing.
Family members desperately performed CPR on him for about 20 minutes until the emergency airlift helicopter finally arrived to rush him to the hospital.His severed arm was quickly packed in ice and transported with him. Surgeons worked for a grueling 11 hours to successfully reattach the arm.However, Jessie had lost nearly all of his blood during the attack.
The massive blood loss caused severe and irreversible damage to his brain.Even though the arm was reattached, the brain injury was devastating. By 2009, Jessie remained permanently disabled, requiring full-time care from his parents. He never regained the ability to speak, walk normally, or fully control his body as he once did.The arm came back, but the energetic young boy who had walked into that warm ocean water that summer day never fully returned.
