Shark attack victim survives thanks to doctors vacationing on Florida Panhandle beach

SEACREST BEACH, Florida – Two doctors vacationing with their families on a Florida beach last weekend rushed to the aid of a teenage victim of a shark attack and likely saved her life.

Three people were attacked by sharks along the Florida Panhandle on Friday. Dr. Ryan Forbess, a family physician from Alabama, said he was spending time in the water with his son at Seacrest Beach in Walton County when he heard a commotion.

“Doctor Ali and I have been friends for years and vacation together at this beach almost every year,” Forbes said. “I was boogie boarding with my son and he was there boogie boarding with his daughter and then all of a sudden we heard some screams of emotion to our left.”

People were screaming to get out of the water, he said. He and his friend, Dr. Muhammed Ali, an interventional radiologist, immediately thought there was a shark in the water, but not a shark attack, let alone two.

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“I just grabbed my son. He grabbed his daughter and we ran to the beach,” Forbess said. “It was a little scary thinking something was going on and then I looked as I was running to the beach and saw blood in the water.”

Life-threatening injuries

The 15-year-old girl and her 17-year-old friend were in waist-deep water when the shark attacked just 30 meters from where the doctors and their children were. One of the two had life-threatening injuries, losing a hand and part of her leg. The other had foot injuries that the Walton Fire District chief described in a press conference as “flesh wounds.”

The doctors lowered the children into the water with their wives and younger children and rushed to a group of people who pulled the seriously injured girl out of the water.

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“We saw the extent of the injuries and knew that anyone with medical knowledge needed to step in,” Forbess said. “We were able to start treating her at that point, apply pressure where necessary, apply tourniquets, basically do advanced trauma care and try to stabilize her.”

Two emergency room nurses and a paramedic joined the makeshift medical team. They were all on vacation. Forbess described the injuries as “horrific.” Witnesses on the beach found objects used as tourniquets and to apply pressure.

“I think it was a kind of grace from God that we had a medical team there,” he said of the strangers on vacation. “And I felt like we worked well together. It felt like we had been working together for years.”

Paramedics arrived and the victims were flown by helicopter to a hospital. Forbess said the seriously injured girl had lost two-thirds of her blood and would likely have died without the immediate intervention of doctors and nurses.

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Victim in stable condition

Later, Forbes called his office manager. She asked how his day off was.

“And I was like, ‘Well, there was a huge event on the beach,’ and she was like, ‘Oh my God! That was you guys?'” Forbes said.

She happened to be across the street from the hospital where the emergency services had taken the girl. The manager was having an event.

The girl’s mother welcomed the manager into the hospital room and they called Forbes.

“She told me how grateful she was, but it was a team effort from everyone,” he said. “And I was just grateful to hear that she survived.”