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08/15/2007 Andrea Lynch (Florida)

Shark Attack Survivors News Archive for Shark Attacks in 2007.
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sharkbait
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08/15/2007 Andrea Lynch (Florida)

Post by sharkbait »

Female student needs 100 stitches after surviving horrific shark attack

Last updated at 10:43am on 23rd August 2007

Andrea Lynch shows her shark bite injuries
Image

American student Andrea Lynch shows her injuries after she was bitten by a 6ft bull shark as she floated in the sea off Florida.


The 20-year-old needed 100 stitches to 17 wounds after the attack on a boat trip to Sarasota Bay.


Doctors said the shark's teeth got close to her lungs but avoided all her major organs.


Ms Lynch said at first her friends refused to believe that a shark had attacked her.


She said: "I got on the boat and my friend was, like, 'Do I need to call 911?'"

"I reached back with my hand and felt all these gashes on me, and there was blood running down my body and pooling in the boat."

"I was screaming. There was blood all over."


Ms Lynch had 17 puncture wounds. Doctors said the shark's teeth missed all major organs but were close to her lungs.


A shark expert said Lynch may have been bitten by a roughly 6-foot-long bull shark.

She joked: "Either it didn't like the taste of human of it thought I was too boney."

"It's just one of those freak things. I wont hesitate to go back into the sea but not when it's dark."


The damage the shark inflicted

Image


Earlier this summer British beaches was put on shark alert after a holidaymaker spotted what experts say may have been a Great White 200 yards off the coast of Cornwall.

A handful of possible sightings of Great Whites have been made before in UK waters, but none have been confirmed.

Although the shark that attacked Andrea Lynch was a bull shark, experts have said it is only a matter of time before the sharks like Great Whites, which are more usually found off the Australian and South African coasts but have been spotted in Mediterranean waters, turn up near Britain.

Worldwide there are fewer than 100 shark attacks every year and just a handful of deaths.

Image

Attacker: a bull shark swims through the water

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770
Last edited by sharkbait on Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
sharkbait
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Post by sharkbait »

Woman survives shark attack, gets more than 100 stitches
The Associated PressPublished: August 18, 2007


SARASOTA, Florida: A college student received more than 100 stitches after being bitten by a shark in Sarasota Bay.

Andrea Lynch, 20, said she was floating on her back near a boat when the shark bit her in her side Wednesday, shook her a little bit and then let her go.

When she got back in the boat, she told her three friends that she might have been bitten by a shark and they thought she might be joking — or mistaken.

"I reached back with my hand and felt all these gashes on me," she said, "and there was blood running down my body and pooling in the boat."

Lynch had 17 puncture wounds. Doctors said the shark's teeth got close to her lungs, but missed all major organs.


http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/ ... k-Bite.php
sharkbait
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Post by sharkbait »

Andrea bitten by shark..and lives

By Anton Antonowicz,
Us Correspondent 23/08/2007

Student Andrea Lynch was bitten by a bull shark when it made a Jawsstyle attack during a late-night dip, leaving her with 17 puncture wounds.

The 7ft beast's razor-sharp teeth slashed into the 20-year-old's ribs and pelvis - but it missed her vital organs before shaking her and letting go.

Andrea joked: "Either it didn't like the taste of human or it thought I was too bony."

Along with three friends, Andrea had taken an inflatable dinghy to a boat 200 yards from the shore in Sarasota Bay off Florida's Gulf coast.

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She was swimming from the dinghy when the shark came up underneath her and attacked as she floated on her back.

Her friends hauled her aboard the boat but the dinghy floated away, leaving them stranded.

Andrea said: "I was screaming There was blood all over."

A friend called rescue services and a boat raced to the scene in 20 minutes to take her to hospital where she needed 100 stitches.

Doctors said she would have died if pals had not stemmed the bleeding.

Last night Andrea said: "It's just one of those freak things. I won't hesitate to go back in to the sea but not when it's dark." Shark expert George Burgess said the incident fitted the "formula" for an attack as the animals are more active at night.

2,500 MILES

..furthest limit bull sharks have been found up freshwater Amazon

Seventeen

..number of deaths out of 82 recorded attacks since 1580

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories ... -19675434/
sharkbait
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Post by sharkbait »

It's the stuff of horror: a bay jaunt, and a shark
By TODD RUGER

todd.ruger@heraldtribune.com



SARASOTA -- The shark bit Andrea Lynch as she floated on her back in a dark Sarasota Bay, sinking its teeth in her side until they hit her ribs and pelvis, then shaking her briefly before letting her go.

Lynch, 20, said her three friends from New College thought she might be joking or mistaken when she told them a shark just attacked her.

"I got on the boat and my friend was like, 'Do I need to call 911?'" Lynch said. "I reached back with my hand and felt all these gashes on me, and there was blood running down my body and pooling in the boat."

It is only the seventh reported unprovoked shark bite in Sarasota County since 1882, and the second one this year, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Lynch said she has muscle tears and tissue damage, and a doctor put more than 100 stitches in her body during a three-hour surgery Thursday.

Lynch took photos of her bites to Mote Marine Laboratory shark expert Bob Hueter on Friday afternoon to see if he could tell how large the shark was or what species it was.

Hueter estimated it was a bull shark about six feet long.

The conditions on Wednesday night were perfect for seeing the marine phenomenon of bioluminescence, Lynch said. The friends took an inflatable dinghy out to a New College-owned boat anchored 200 yards out in the bay.

The boat was isolated, the wind was light and there was little light other than the green glow from the algae when the swimmers or other fish stirred the water.

Those are also excellent conditions for a shark bite, experts say.

One friend was swimming with Lynch when she screamed, and two were standing in the boat. When she pulled herself out of the water, the friends planned to go back to shore.

But in the chaos, the inflatable dinghy floated away. Nobody wanted to jump back in the water to bring it back.

They had no way back to shore.

"It was like a horror movie," Lynch said.

They called 911.

It took four hands pressing shirts against the wounds to get the bleeding under control. A rescue boat arrived about 20 minutes later to take Lynch to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

There were 17 puncture wounds stretching in a crescent on Lynch's side. Doctors told her the teeth that pierced between her ribs got close to her lungs, but missed all of the major organs.

"Either it didn't like the taste of human, or it hit my bone and thought I was too bony," said Lynch, a former biology major who now studies international relations.

Either way, Lynch and her friends say they are not planning to swim in the bay at night anymore.

That is a good idea because sharks are most active at night, said George Burgess, the director of the International Shark Attack File.

The swimmers also isolated themselves in the middle of the bay and made themselves obvious by moving around in the bioluminescent water, Burgess said.

"That's a formula for a shark attack," Burgess said. "Happily, the outcome wasn't too severe."
Image

Image

http://heraldtribune.com/article/200708 ... /708180480
Last edited by sharkbait on Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
sharkbait
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Post by sharkbait »

Published - August, 18, 2007

Shark attacks woman in Sarasota Bay
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) � A college student received more than 100 stitches after being bitten by a shark in Sarasota Bay.

Andrea Lynch, 20, said she was floating on her back near a boat when the shark bit her in her side Wednesday, shook her a little bit and then let her go.

When she got back in the boat, she told her three friends that she might have been bitten by a shark and they thought she might be joking � or mistaken.

�I reached back with my hand and felt all these gashes on me,� she said, �and there was blood running down my body and pooling in the boat.�

Lynch had 17 puncture wounds. Doctors said the shark�s teeth got close to her lungs, but missed all major organs.

A shark expert said he believed the attack was by a roughly 6-foot-long bull shark.


http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/app ... 1/70818002
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