Clinical Practice

Be Shark Smart: Lessons Learned from a Near-Fatal Shark Bite

Monday, October 24, 2022

14:15 – 15:15

Location: Room 118

CE: 1.0 credit - CAPCE; Nursing

Main Presenter(s)

Jason Iams, BSN, CFRN, PMD

Flight RN/Parademic
ShandsCair
HIgh Springs, Florida, United States
Michael Johnson, PMD, FP-C, CCP (he/him/his)

Flight RN/Parademic
ShandsCair, Florida, United States
David Meurer, MD

Medical Director
ShandsCair
Gainesville,, Florida, United States

This session will be a case presentation and discussion of a near fatal shark attack in Keaton Beach Florida on July 25th. This event made national news and most recently the patient and her family were interviewed on Entertainment tonight. Following the shark attack, everything went right for this 17 year old girl. After a morning of bad weather, it happened to open up enough to get to the scene and back to the closest trauma center. Her brother is an EMT FF who was with her and immediately placed a lifesaving tourniquet above her injured leg. HEMS was called by her brother before local EMS first laid their eyes on the patient. Our flight team made many critical decisions, one of the most crucial was to hold off RSI to fluid resuscitate with NS and whole blood. This presentation will be given by the flight team that was on the call as well as the ShandsCair medical director. The best news is that the patient is alive and doing well. We have full permission from the family to discuss all aspects of this incident.

Learning Objectives:

Discuss the principles of early tourniquet application and need for junctional tourniquets
Identify methods to minimize accident scene time to get into flight
Describe the importance of IV Fluid resuscitation and blood administration in hypovolemia before RSI