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05/01/2019 Paul Kelly - Florida

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Re: 05/01/2019 Paul Kelly - Florida

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alb
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05/01/2019 Paul Kelly - Florida

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Boca Grande Pass Paul Kelly was pulled off his boat by a Tarpon and a Bull Shark Attacked him. Speaking from the Lee Memorial Hospital on Saturday Paul Kelly's leg after surgeons stitched and stapled him up after a shark bit him.


Texas man recovering after shark bite in Boca Grande Pass


Brooke Baitinger, Fort Myers News-Press Published 6:29 p.m. ET May 4, 2019 | Updated 9:20 a.m. ET May 6, 2019

Paul Kelly said the worst part of the day was losing the tarpon he was trying to reel in. Fort Myers News-Press
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The worst part of a Texas man's trip to Florida wasn't when he got bit by a shark on a fishing trip.

It's when he lost the tarpon he was trying to reel in.

Speaking from the Lee Memorial Hospital on Saturday, Paul Kelly, 72, said it was still a good trip overall.

"We lost the fish of course," Kelly said. "That was the worst part."
Paul Kelly fishing the day of the attack.

Paul Kelly fishing the day of the attack. (Photo: Special to the News-Press)

Kelly said he was on a six-hour fishing trip with his good friend and a boat captain in Boca Grande Pass on Wednesday.

More: Shark attacks dropped worldwide in 2018; Massachusetts had the one death in USA

Near the end of the trip, both he and his friend had hooked sizable tarpon, he said.

Kelly said he was trying to work in a 150-pound tarpon when his shoe slipped and he was yanked into the water by the fish.

While he was underwater, Kelly said he felt something hit his leg. He didn't realize at the time it was a shark nibbling on it.

The captain pulled him to the boat with a fishing rod, and his buddy hoisted him into the boat by his belt.

Once he was in the boat, the captain told him a shark had bitten him, and that it appeared to be an eight to 10-foot bull shark, Kelly said.
Paul Kelly's leg after surgeons stitched and stapled him up after a shark bit him.

Paul Kelly's leg after surgeons stitched and stapled him up after a shark bit him. (Photo: Special to the News-Press)

That's when he noticed a gash around his left knee and calf, he said.

2014: Plenty of sharks, but few attacks; There's been no local fatalities in 131 years

The men acted quickly, wrapping a belt around his left thigh to stop the bleeding as they raced to shore. Paramedics swarmed him, dressing his leg and securing a tourniquet. Kelly was airlifted to the trauma center.

Surgeons stitched him up, and he had surgery on a torn tendon in his knee the next day.

The Vietnam veteran said he barely felt pain through the whole incident or post surgery.

"You do the best with what you get," he said.

Doctors told him he should be able to leave the hospital in the next few days. He and his wife hope to return to Texas on Monday.

April 2007: News-Press archive: Shark bites man near Naples hotel

The U.S. led the world in shark attacks, again, in 2018, but the overall number of attacks dropped significantly. USA TODAY

The trauma surgeon who treated Kelly, Robert L'Connor, said he's seen alligator bites, but never a shark bite.

"They aren't that frequent to be honest with you," L'Connor said. "It's something everybody is concerned with when they get into the water, but it's the first one I've seen in 10 years."

It demonstrates the necessity of the trauma center, which serves trauma patients from the surrounding five counties and just celebrated its 25th year in business, L'Connor said.

Though Florida annually tops the leader board for attacks in the United States, bites plummeted last year compared with previous years, according to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a University of Florida database that tracks shark attacks worldwide.

More: Miss Costa — another great white shark — pings in the Gulf of Mexico

https://www.news-press.com
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