Rescuer in his own life battle

A FORMER US Navy master diver who saved the life of shark attack victim Glenn Dickson three years ago was fighting for his own life on Sunday night after being mauled.

Rick Bettua, 59, was spearfishing on the Great Barrier Reef off Hinchinbrook Island on Sunday when bitten on the upper thigh by a bull shark shortly after noon.

Close friend Peter Kocica was in the water with Mr Bettua at the popular Britomart Reef when the shark attacked.

He described how he swam towards his bleeding friend and helped him into their boat before waving down a larger, faster vessel to take him to Dungeness boat ramp.

“I’ve looked across and just seen this big bull shark flying over across (the coral) and out of the deep and he’s tried to (protect himself) and it grabbed on to his leg and taken a couple of bites I saw,” Mr Kocica said.

He said they had earlier seen two large bull sharks lurking where they were fishing at the northern end of the reef.

Mr Kocica said the attack happened as they were on their last dive of the day.

“I grabbed him, blood was pouring out of his leg, and we swam back to the boat about 30m away,” he said.

Mr Kocica said he applied a tourniquet to Mr Bettua’s leg before waving down two large boats nearby. One had a doctor on board, so Mr Bettua was transferred to that vessel. It arrived at the boat ramp at 1.10pm to be met by paramedics and a rescue helicopter.

It is understood Mr Bettua arrived with no pulse but was stabilised by paramedics before being flown to Townsville. He was listed in a critical condition on Sunday night.

Incredibly, Mr Bettua was credited with saving Mr Dickson in 2017 after another bull shark attack off Hinchinbrook Island. Both Mr Bettua and Mr Kocica were among those who rescued Mr Dickson.