A shark tale: Heroic rescue saves a life
MANATEE -- Seven young people went out on a 25-foot Dorado outboard Saturday for a day of spear fishing and lazy times 5 or 6 miles off the northern tip of Anna Maria Island.
That all seven came back alive took heroic effort on the part of six of them.
At 3 p.m., as he bobbed in the water next to the boat catching his breath from a free dive, 21-year-old Charles “CJ” Wickersham of Longboat Key was attacked by a 9-foot bull shark that swam up from below.
“I saw the commotion under him,” said lifelong friend Connor Bystrom, 22, owner of the boat, “He was splashing and freaking out. All of a sudden he was screaming for help. I saw him punch the shark in the face. I turned to our friend, Max Garza, and we gave each other a look like, ‘This is serious’ and we both dove in the water. There was a 10-foot diameter cloud of blood around CJ.”
The shark had bit Wickersham on the outer part of his left thigh, leaving a gaping wound, measuring 14 inches from his knee to his hip. His flesh literally flapped on his leg.
“You could see his femur,” said Bystrom, who was joined in the water by another friend, Lee White. “We knew this was a life-threatening situation.”
Thanks to quick thinking by his six friends, Wickersham was out of danger at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg on Sunday. They quickly hauled in Wickersham, tied off the wound with a tourniquet to halt the extensive bleeding, called 911 and kept him conscious and alert while racing him to a waiting ambulance at the Rod & Reel Pier.
“These six people saved my son’s live,” said Ella Wickersham, who said her son required five units of blood and has had one surgery so far to clean up the wound area. “They are all heroes. I can’t thank them enough.”
The six friends who were with Wickersham include Kiera Dunn, Oceanna Beard, Katie Mattas, Lee White, Bystrom and Garza.
A perfect day, until ...
The seven friends were free diving and relaxing off Bean Point, near the Rod & Reel Pier, on the north end of Anna Maria Island on Bystrom’s 25-foot boat.
While the men were holding their breath underwater and spear shooting grouper and other fish, the women were catching the sun’s rays while floating in inflatable chairs tied to the boat.
“We had just found a 2-foot ledge we had never seen, and we were pulling up hog fish and grouper,” said Bystrom, 22, who wants to follow in his father’s path and practice veterinary medicine. Dr. William Bystrom is affiliated with both Palma Sola and Island Animal clinics.
Suddenly, Bystrom’s friend Wickersham, who he has known since kindergarten, was in trouble.
“I dive all the time, and this has never happened to me,” Wickersham said by phone from his hospital bed Sunday where he was surrounded by a crowd of friends. “Usually, sharks just swim by. I don’t know why he hit me. We had shot a whole bunch of hog fish, and I was catching my breath. I didn’t see him until he got me.”
Wickersham, a starting offensive guard on the Manatee High School football team that went to the state Final Four a few years ago, said he remembers the feeling of something hitting him. He punched the shark on the snout and then was pulled out of the water by Lee White, Bystrom and Garza.
“They got me up fast, which saved my life,” Wickersham said.
Bystrom saw blood everywhere and fashioned a tourniquet from the anchor rope.
“We tied the wound back together and bear hugged the leg on the way in,” Bystrom said.
“I guess it was instinct,” Bystrom said about crafting an effective tourniquet. “I’ve worked with my dad a lot in surgery. I just knew what we had to do.”
White had pulled the women, who were bobbing in the water where the shark was, into the boat.
The six left all their gear in the water and began driving the Dorado fast. White drove and covered the 5 miles in 10 minutes. He ran the boat up on the beach, where the crew of a waiting ambulance, summoned by Dunn, Beard and Mattas, would immediately call for a Bayfront helicopter after seeing the wound. The three women also helped keep Wickersham calm.
“He was awake and kept telling us, ‘Call my parents, let them know what’s happening,’ ” Bystrom said of Wickersham. “We kept saying, ‘You’re gonna be all right. Just keep talking to us.’ He said his fingers were tingling. Then, later, he said his chest was tingling. I imagine that was from blood loss.”
Connor Bystrom called his mom, Jeanne, from the boat and gave her the task of notifying Wickersham’s parents.
“Jeanne called me and said, ‘Ella. This is Jeanne Bystrom, CJ is OK, but he’s gotten bite by a shark,’ ” Ella Wickersham said Sunday from the hospital. “I screamed. I about fell to the floor.”
Wickersham’s parents, Kevin and Ella, and his sister, Kristi, 19, raced to Bayfront Medical Center and saw CJ moments before he went into surgery.
“He was white as a sheet,” Ella Wickersham said.
Taking a rest
Wickersham seemed to enjoy all the attention Sunday. He anticipates about a week in the hospital, including more surgeries as doctors closely monitor possible infection before actually closing the skin flap on his leg. Some physical therapy will follow.
“They tell me I have a whole bunch of teeth marks where the shark bit,” Wickersham said Sunday. “I’m thankful I still have some meat on that leg.”
Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 6686.
This story was originally published September 26, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "A shark tale: Heroic rescue saves a life."