T’day snorkel horror
Boat chops off man’s arm
A marine biologist snorkeling in the Atlantic Ocean off Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving lost an arm when he was run over by a boat and struck by the vessel’s propeller, according to reports.
Carter Viss, 25, was snorkeling with friends near The Breakers resort Thursday afternoon when the gruesome accident occurred, according to WPTV in Palm Beach.
Someone spotted Viss’ lost right limb, and the Coast Guard fished it out of the water.
Boat operator Daniel Stanton, 30, said he noticed the diving flags about 200 feet from the shore, and immediately throttled the Yellowfin vessel down, according to authorities, but the propeller-speed was still enough to take off Viss’ arm.
“The way it came in was pretty aggressive and to only be a hundred yards offshore — usually boats don’t come that close to shore,” Samantha Marulli, who witnessed the accident from the beach, told WPTV, adding there appeared to be children aboard the boat.
When Viss was pulled from the water by the boaters who hit him, “he didn’t have an arm,” she said. They brought him to shore.
Viss, of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, was rushed to St. Mary’s Medical Center in critical condition. He suffered severe damage to his other limbs, including a broken left wrist.
His mother, Leilla Viss, flew from Denver to be at his side.
“On Thanksgiving Day, Carter was out doing what he loved most; diving in the ocean near Palm Beach with a good friend,” Leilla wrote in a statement on the Web site Caring Bridge. He was “conscious during the entire event,” his mother said.