SHARK AND SNAKE BITE HERO TALKS
A NORTH Queensland man who saved the life of a mate mauled by a shark has saved a second life after his son-in-law was bitten by a death adder.
Peter Kocica, involved in a dramatic rescue of snakebite victim Ben Duffy on Wednesday, confirmed he was one of three men who helped pull Glenn Dickson from the water and administer first aid after his leg was nearly severed by a 3.5 metre bull shark off Hinchinbrook Island in 2017.
“These sorts of things seem to follow me around,” he said. “There is a bonus – no one’s died yet.”
Snake victim and father of three, Mr Duffy was released from Townsville University Hospital yesterday, thankful to be alive but still in pain.
Mr Kocica, speaking from the Peak Downs Mine in Central Queensland where he works as a flyin, fly-out machinery operator, said his son-in-law was also a keen outdoorsman.
He said the pair had just completed a kayak-fishing journey down the picturesque Broadwater Creek.
He said they were loading the second kayak when Mr Duffy dropped it and yelled, “I’ve been bitten by a snake, I’ve been bitten by a snake.
“I know in that area there, there are a lot of big brown snakes and I was waiting to see a big brown snake take off, but no snake took off, so I was thinking ‘is he mucking around?’ and then I saw two marks, fang marks.”
He said his instincts and his first aid training in the mines kicked in as he calmed his son-in-law and used his shirt as a pressure bandage. He used his own shirt as a second tourniquet around the thigh.
Mr Duffy said he was discharged from hospital yesterday, saying his son-in-law remained in a great deal of pain, had blurred vision and was partly paralysed, although he is expected to make a full recovery.
Mr Kocica, recounting details of the 2017 shark attack, said he took three mates, including Mr Dickson, on a spearfishing trip in waters off Hinchinbrook Island. He said swimming with large sharks was par for the course so sighting the full-grown bull shark as they fished off a rock outcrop was not an immediate cause for concern. Unfortunately for Mr Dickson who was in the water on the opposite side of the rocks, the shark attacked with two bites, the first ripping much of his thigh from the bone, the second, his calf. “He wasn’t in a good way, the ocean was full of blood,” he said.
The actions of Mr Kocica and friends Aaron Butler and former US navy diver Rick Bettua have been credited with saving the life of the father of three from Mission Beach.