Heroic boat captain jumps in to save diver being savaged by shark: Not bleeding out on my watch

A 40-year-old was viciously attacked by a shark during what was supposed to be an enjoyable diving excursion — but was saved when his quick-thinking friend jumped in to save him.Boat captain Jacob Johnson was diving with three others on Tuesday, 30 miles off Florida’s Emerald Coast, when, during their last dive of the day, a bull shark bit his friend.“I was helping one of the other divers get undressed when I heard ‘Help help.I’ve been bit’,” Johnson recalled to Fox 10 News.After Johnson heard “the sense of urgency, and remarkably, calmness, that was in his voice,” he thought it was a minor accident at first.“I was looking over the side of the boat to make fun of him; I thought he got bit by a trigger fish,” he explained.

“And he’s surrounded in blood.”His unidentified friend, who was badly savaged on both forearms, could not lift himself back onto the boat due to the injury.“There was no time for emotions or critical thinking as far as risk analysis — I just jumped in,” said Johnson, who quickly removed the man’s diving gear and was able to push him back into the boat.The rest of the group “went into instinct mode,” Johnson said, and also contributed to the rescue effort.“Everybody was helping.One guy was getting his shirt off to tourniquet his arm,” he recalled.Another man happened to have WoundSeal, a powder that stops minor external bleeding, which his wife had packed for him, so was able to use that.

They used that on both his arms, which slowed the bleeding, and then applied a tourniquet with zip ties.“I pulled it tight and said, ‘How’s that?’ and he said, ‘I think it’s too tight.’ So I pulled it again,” Johnson said, “You’re not bleeding out on my watch.”The group continued talking to the victim to keep him calm and he remained conscious while the Coast Guard arrived, rushed him to shore, and airlifted him to hospital.The injured man is expected to make a full recovery, despite the shark tear...