Shark attack victim ‘bravest patient’ rescue crewman has seen

A YOUNG woman who was mauled by a shark while swimming off the Cape York coast has been described by a rescue helicopter crewman as the bravest patient he has ever flown.

Emergency services have praised the swift actions of crew members onboard a crayfish trawler, who administered first aid to the 20-year-old after the shark attack occurred about 17km off the coast of Cape Grenville, around 6.30pm on Sunday.

The woman, understood to be a commercial diver, had been snorkelling off the back of the trawler and viewing grouper, when the shark grabbed her right leg in its jaws.

She suffered serious lacerations between her ankle and knee and was rushed by crew onboard the vessel to nearby sand cay Magra Islet, where rescuers were called, and she was eventually flown to Cairns Hospital. She remained in the hospital yesterday in a stable condition.

It is not known what species of shark attacked her.

Babcock Australasia’s rescue crew officer Dominic Hodalin was on board the helicopter tasked from Horn Island to transport the woman to Lockhart River, before she was flown via Royal Flying Doctor Service to Cairns.

“The injury was severe,” he said. “She was stable when we arrived on scene, and she was conscious and in quite good spirits, considering.

“This was the bravest patient I have ever seen – the fact she was conscious and talking about diving all the way back on the helicopter ride, that was something.”

The woman was an employee of MG Kailis’ tropical lobster division, which operates a fleet of three fishing vessels between Cairns and PNG.