WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A 24-year-old man is on the road to recovery after he was bitten by a shark while he was in the Bahamas.
A conference with Marlin Wakeman and staff at St. Mary’s Medical Center was held, Thursday.
During his trip to the Bahamas, Marlin described falling into what he referred to as a shark den.
He was working on a boat at the Florida Flying Fish Marina in the Bahamas and said he misjudged the space in between the dock and the boat and accidentally fell into the water.
The marina is filled with sharks due to constant fishing in the area.
“They have a fillet table right there in the middle of the marina and whenever everyone goes out and kills a bunch of fish, they come back and they throw all their carceses right there and it’s…you can walk on their heads almost,” said Marlin.
When Marlin fell into the water, he was immediately surrounded by about 20 sharks. He was attacked by one shark that grabbed and chomped on his leg.
“I really just got lucky that that shark didn’t grab on and head shake because, if he did that, he would have shredded my leg a lot more and then who knows how much longer he would’ve held me there and probably would’ve gave other sharks more time to come along and then it would’ve been a frenzy,” he said.
Marlin was able to grab part of the boat and lifted himself out of the water.
“Kinda scrambled for a second, got my surroundings in check and really realized what was going on,” he said, “and I got my left hand on the boat, and at that time, the other shark came and hit me on my right side of my right shoulder. I was holding on to the cover of the board and he grabbed me, pulled my head underwater, and then let go of me.”
That shark grazed a part of his back but the damage was already done. The circumference of the shark bite was between 14 to 15 inches. Luckily, the sharks didn’t puncture any of Marlin’s major arteries.
“I know it hurt really, really bad once the adrenaline wore off and, you know, I was headed to the clinic,” said Marlin.
He was then attended by authorities in the Bahamas who tied a tourniquet on his wound to stop the bleeding and was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
“It was a big shark. He was probably bitten by at least a seven footer or an eight-foot shark,” said St. Mary’s Medical Center Dr. Robert Borrego.
Doctors at the hospital were able to perform surgery, clean his wound and made sure that there was no major damage to his kneecap.
“When we opened the wound, we took out the stitches they had done in the Bahamas, just to clean everything out, check for infection. We did find some puncture wounds in the kneecap,” said Borrego.
Marlin is currently on crutches and, doctors said, he is expected to make a full recovery.
His parents are grateful that their son is OK.
“It’s not often that a shark attack victim gets treated by a shark attack doctor, so we were very fortunate there and I’ll be forever grateful,” said Cpt. Rufus Wakeman, the father of the victim.
“We’ve just been blessed so we are just happy every day. He’s been a great patient and he’s a tough kid,” said Melynda Wakeman, the victim’s mother.
Doctors also said he was very lucky he fell into the shark-infested water and was able to make it out alive.
“I got very lucky and it could’ve turned out to be a completely different outcome, so I got very lucky, yeah,” said Marlin.
Marlin is still on an antibiotic treatment to make sure he avoids any infection.
Due to the proximity between the Bahamas and West Palm Beach, many shark attack victims are flown to St. Mary’s for treatment.
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