01/11/2009 Hannah Mighall (Australia)

[sharkbait]

Shark attack is still a vivid memory for Hannah
REPORT AND PICTURES: BY KATE CLIFFORD
11 Jan, 2010 04:23 PM
IT has been a year since St Helens schoolgirl Hannah Mighall survived a shark attack.


Long scars riddle her upper leg and memorabilia in her room serves as a constant reminder of the 14-year-old's near-death fight with a shark.

Not much has changed for this happy go-lucky teenager.

Malcolm Mighall with daughter Hannah as mother Floss embraces daughter Kitty at Scamander.

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Hannah Mighall with memorabilia of her shark attack survival.

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Hannah Mighall with her cousin Syb Munday after the attack last January.

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She's still surfing, swimming and going to school.


But one thing that has changed is her family's outlook on life.


On January 11, 2009, Hannah and her 33-year-old cousin Syb Mundy went surfing off Baileys Rocks at Binalong Bay.


As Hannah was sitting out behind the waves on her surfboard with her cousin, a five-metre shark attacked, dragged her under the water three times, bit her leg twice and took a large chunk out of her board.


Mr Mundy paddled over to Hannah as she tried to fight off the shark, dragged her on to his back and rode a wave to shore.


She was taken to St Helens District Hospital before being flown to the Royal Hobart Hospital for surgery.


Hannah's mother Floss Mighall said it was the worst experience she had ever had and changed the family's perspective on life.


"We used to be quite a conservative family - save money, spend it when we need it and not to waste it on things that are unnecessary," Mrs Mighall said.


"We now realise that you just can't do that, so we live everyday as if tomorrow is not coming."


Since the attack the family has bought a new fishing boat and numerous outdoor toys for family holidays.


Although Hannah said she did not understand the new life goals of her parents, she was glad that she was alive to experience it.


"I still think about it a little, especially when I'm in the water, but some days are better than others," Hannah said.


The bedroom in her Scamander home is full of memories of January 11, 2009.


Posters of the event, letters from world champion surfer Kelly Slater, a medal for courage in defence of marine life and her ruined surfboard are constant reminders of the day.


"I don't hate them (sharks), I respect them more than ever now," she said.


"The ocean is where they live and I was mistaken for something I'm not, that's all.


"I don't think my life will change this summer, I still plan to go surfing as often as I can."


"I know when it doesn't feel right to get back in the water and I know when it's OK."


http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/n ... 22073.aspx

[sharkbait]

SHARK attack victim Hannah Mighall is set to go back into the water this weekend.


Shark survivor's surf return

March 18, 2009 04:00am

Brave ... Shark attack survivor Hannah Mighall returns to the surf this weekend.

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SHARK attack victim Hannah Mighall is set to go back into the water this weekend.

The 14-year-old admits she is nervous about surfing again.

She was mauled by a 5m white pointer shark at Binalong Bay on Tasmania's East Coast two months ago. Hannah's cousin Syb Mundy, of Queensland, pulled the injured teenager to safety after the attack.

But the St Marys teenager loves the beach and said she had missed being able to surf since the ordeal.

Hannah's doctor has given her the all-clear to surf again and resume playing netball and soccer.

The Year 8 student plans to surf with friends on Sunday morning, but doubts she will go to the spot where she was attacked.

"I probably won't go there for a while," she said.

She has been to the beach a couple of times since the attack but has not yet been in the water.

Hannah, a keen surf lifesaver, said she found it difficult to sit on the beach and watch her friends surf because she wanted to be out there with them.

Hannah has been having regular physiotherapy to repair nerve and muscle damage she sustained when the shark bit a huge chunk from the side of her surfboard and latched on to her leg.

She said her leg, which required more than 200 internal and external stitches, was healing well.


http://www.themercury.com.au/article/20 ... -news.html

[sharkbait]

Hannah Mighall, 13, and her rescuer cousin Syb Mundy, 33, with Hannah's surfboard and the bite mark from the white pointer shark. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

MARK WORLEY

January 18, 2009 08:50am

TEENAGE shark attack survivor Hannah Mighall has told how she saw the monster rising under her moments before it struck.

"I was just sitting on my board and this big black shadow just came up at me," Hannah said of the attack last Sunday.

In that fraction of a second, the giant 5m shark bit 13-year-old Hannah's right leg as she sat waiting for a wave while surfing at Binalong Bay on Tasmania's East Coast.

Last Sunday's attack left Miss Mighall in hospital needing hundreds of internal and external stitches to repair the gashes.

Bandages now cover the wounds on her right leg, stretching from above her knee to her toes.

The incident has left the teenager physically and emotionally scarred and temporarily afraid of returning to the open water, but Miss Mighall says she holds no animosity towards the creature that nearly took her life.

Yesterday, as she lay in her bed at the Royal Hobart Hospital, she put on a brave face and tried to remember as much as she could about her ordeal.

Her memory of the incident is clouded but she said she would never forget seeing the big black shadow coming up from the deep.

Or watching it come back for her again.

"It was massive, it didn't look real," Miss Mighall said.

"It pulled away from me and I looked down and saw this black thing coming back up at me again.

"I have never seen a shark before, only on TV.

"I feel very lucky [to have escaped] because that was a big shark.

"It shocked me, it was like I was dreaming.

"I really don't remember much more about it."

Witnesses recall seeing the shark bite a huge chunk from the side of Miss Mighall's surfboard and thrashing about after latching on to her leg.

She says she can't remember too much pain.

"I couldn't really feel it," Miss Mighall said.

"There was a little bit of pain but it didn't really hurt that much. I think the shock stopped the pain."

Her cousin Syb Mundy, from Queensland, was surfing nearby and came to her rescue -- punching the shark repeatedly and trying to gouge its eyes.

After helping his cousin escape from the shark's jaws, Mr Mundy helped position Miss Mighall on his surfboard so he could help her to shore.

The shark kept coming for them but a freak wave pushed them to the safety of the beach.

"If she wasn't competent in the water, I don't know what would have happened," Mr Mundy said.

"She was definitely a hero. There wasn't any way we could have got through it if there was a weak link in our chain."
Miss Mighall is adamant she does not want people to seek revenge against her attacker.

"I don't want them to kill that shark, I want the shark to live," she said.

"I was in its territory and it didn't kill me."

Miss Mighall says it will be a while before she goes surfing in the ocean again.

"I think I might stick to the lagoon for a little bit," she said.

"I want to get back in the water, but not for a while."

Miss Mighall has been surrounded by her family since being flown to the RHH by helicopter a few hours after she was bitten.

Yesterday afternoon she moved to the Hobart Ronald McDonald House hospital accommodation facility, where doctors have urged her to stay a few days before going home to Scamander.

"They are worried about her falling down and causing more damage," her father Malcolm said.

"We are hoping to maybe go home on Tuesday."

A friend has given her a book about Bethany Hamilton, a Hawaiian surfer who became an international star when she continued board-riding after having her arm bitten off by a shark.

She says she will use it as inspiration as she recovers.

And she hasn't written off a career as a professional surfer just yet.

"It would be pretty good to go on the professional circuit," she said.

Mr Mighall said he was looking forward to taking his daughter home.

Her old surfboard, which sports a giant hole where the shark tried to bite her, will serve as a constant reminder of the attack and as a prompt to her parents about what she may want for her 14th birthday next week.

"I am going to need a new wetsuit and board," she said with a huge smile.

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/20 ... -news.html

[sharkbait]

How Hannah, 13, fought off a shark

Shark attack ... Syb Mundy, top left, was in the water with his cousin Hannah Mighall when she was bitten. Top right, the surfboard, and bottom, Hannah arrives at hospital.
Pictures: Fiona Reynolds, The Examiner

It grabbed her surfboard and dragged that under and she still had her leg rope on and it dragged her under again

Syb Mundy, who saved his teenage cousin Hannah Mighall from the jaws of a shark, has shrugged off the tag of "hero".

Mr Mundy, 33, said Hannah, 13, was the one who deserved accolades for her bravery.

Mr Mundy was surfing with Hannah at Binalong Bay, near St Helens, in Tasmania's north-east, yesterday afternoon when a five-metre great white latched onto her leg.

The shark dragged her under the water twice before her cousin reached her on his surfboard and hit it on the head.

Mr Mundy was still in a state of disbelief when he spoke at the St Helens District Hospital in Tasmania, describing graphically how a casual surf at Binalong Bay almost ended in tragedy.

"We were just surfing and she was probably five or 10 metres out in front of me," he said.

"The next thing I know she screamed and disappeared under the water.

"She came up and was fighting the shark and hitting it and screaming: 'Help me, help me, help me.' We didn't see it coming.

"It dragged her around a bit and then she went down and under again. I was really worried. There was blood all in the water.

"It brought her up to the top again and I paddled over to her and tried to push it with the board and tried to hit it but I don't think it felt it really. It was a pretty big shark - a monster.

"It would have had two goes at her. She's lucky she didn't lose her leg.

"Hannah kept a really good head on her - kept it together.

"It grabbed her surfboard and dragged that under and she still had her leg rope on and it dragged her under again.

"The shark started circling us and coming up underneath us and when it did that we stopped and turned to face it so we could push it out of the way or poke it in the eye or something.

"She kept it together. There was blood everywhere and I didn't know whether it was going to try and bite her again.

"Then a wave came along and I said 'No matter how weak you are, try and hang on. This wave is going to save our lives.'

"And then we caught that wave to the beach, dragged her up on the beach and saw her leg had been mauled.

"It was pretty deep, in behind her knee was deep. You could almost see the bone. It was pretty horrible really.

"We were lucky the water was cold. It slowed her heart rate so when we pulled her out of the water the leg wasn't spurting blood everywhere.

"There happened to be a doctor and a nurse on the beach. We got a leg rope ... and wrapped it around and then wrapped some towels around to try and slow the blood down. We got a mobile phone and rang the ambulance.

"I just think it was meant to happen for a reason. I'm blessed.

"She was on the beach and whingeing about the pain. I said: 'You should be laughing that you're alive, don't whinge about the pain.'

"She's 13 years old. She made me very proud. She gave me the strength to stay there with her in the water - when I saw the way she was fighting it off.

"She was scared but she fought it off. She wasn't going to let it beat her.

"I was really scared but the way she fought that shark off. What are you going to do, leave your relative to die?

"I was stunned - I didn't know what to do. She was the one who pulled me through it. She's the hero. She's my hero.

"She's going to be all right, but she's going to have a big scar and a story to tell. She's a very, very, very brave girl.

"As for the shark, well they belong there, there's nothing you can do. It just did what it instinctively thought to do.

"That's life. Hannah would say the same. She actually wants to be a marine biologist and this hasn't changed her mind.

"When she came up I said: 'Try to get your leg rope off, try and get your leg rope off', and I was trying to look for the shark because it disappeared and all I could see was blood in the water.

"The leg rope is about six foot [1.8 metres] long, but then it broke and she popped up and I said: 'Jump on my back.'

"She jumped on my back and we started paddling to the beach and I said 'Don't let go, whatever you do don't let go.' "

Mr Mundy said hitting the shark on the head "was like hitting a brick wall - it was that dense".

"I didn't have a tape to measure it but it was huge. It was easily the length of a car.

"It was just a monster."

The Examiner, with AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/how ... 66053.html

[helmi]

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Shark grabs teen surfer
12/01/2009 1:00:00 AM

TWO surfers swam to the rescue of a teenage girl being pulled under the water in a shark attack at Binalong Bay on the East Coast yesterday.

The attack, at popular surf break Baileys Rocks at the northern end of the bay, happened about 3.30pm about 30m from shore in the breaking waves.

Eyewitness Max Devine, 13, from Hobart, said the shark took a large chunk from the back of the board and latched on to victim Hannah Mighall's right leg below the knee.

Hannah, 13, of Scamander, was rescued by her cousin and fellow surfer Syb Mundy.

Max had been in the water minutes before and saw the attack from the beach.

"It was really scary, especially knowing I had been out there just before," he said.

"It grabbed on to her leg. There were three big gashes just below her knee."

"It went for her leg and took a gash out of it and let go."

Max said two surfers paddled out to rescue her and by the time they got to Hannah, the shark had let go and Mr Mundy dragged her on to his board.

Then he and the other surfer paddled her to shore with the victim clinging to Mr Mundy's back.

"She handled it really well, she was very brave," Max said.

"The attack took just a couple of seconds."

Max said Hannah was knocked off her board during the attack but was still connected to the board by her leg rope.

When Hannah was transferred to the other board, her original board trailed behind her in the surf.

On reaching the shore, the pair took the leg rope off her board and used it as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.

He said there was a trail of blood from the water's edge to where she was being treated by the two surfers, a doctor and others on the beach.

Break O'Day councillor Raoul Harper said he had considered surfing at the beach minutes before the attack and returned about 10 minutes later, after inspecting another break.

He said Mr Mundy and the other surfer were heroes and very brave.

Cr Harper, the son of a fisherman, said the shark stayed at the site for several minutes after the attack and he estimated its length was 3-5m.

White pointers are rare in Tasmanian waters but often grow to 5m or larger.

"The shark was pulling her down and as that was happening Syb (and the other surfer) paddled across ... it appears him paddling across made it let go," Cr Harper said.

"I am not exactly sure there would be a lot of people who would do that.

"A 5m shark is a big fish."

http://www.theadvocate.com.au/news/loca ... 04242.aspx

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[helmi]

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Tas shark attack 'like a scene from Jaws'

A surfer has told of his horror as he watched a five-metre white pointer shark repeatedly attack a teenage girl this afternoon on Tasmania's east coast.



The 13-year-old girl was surfing at Baileys Rocks at Binalong Bay when the attack happened.

Ian Hollingsworth was surfing 20 to 40 metres away and saw the attack, and the efforts of the girl's male cousin to protect her.

"It was basically a scene out of 'Jaws'," he said.

"The shark went around and I saw it actually come out of the water and hit her.

"It then went around, I believe I saw her going backwards, and she was screaming.

"The guy was just fighting to save her. All the time the shark was circling."

Mr Hollingsworth says he then helped the cousin apply first aid.

"We carried her up onto the beach," he said.

"I got the leg rope off the surfboard and put a tourniquet around her leg, then I raced up to the car because I knew I had a lot of towels in the car, and we bandaged her leg, and we just got her stabilised on the beach."

The girl has injuries to her lower right leg, but they are not believed to be life-threatening.

She has been flown to Hobart for treatment.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 463283.htm

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[helmi]

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Relative saves teenage girl from circling shark off Tasmania's north east

By Michelle Draper

January 11, 2009 08:10pm

THE older cousin of a teenage girl attacked by a shark in Tasmania paddled to the 13-year-old's aid and brought her safely to shore as it continued to circle.

The teenager was surfing with her male cousin at Binalong Bay, near St Helens, in Tasmania's north east when the 5m white pointer latched onto her leg about 3.45pm today.

The shark dragged the girl under the water twice before her cousin reached the scene on his surfboard and hit the animal, causing it to let go of the girl's leg, Senior Sergeant Jason Elmer of St Helens Police said.

The cousin, a man in his 20s from Queensland, managed to pull the teenager onto his surfboard and began to paddle towards the shore.

But the shark followed and circled the frightened pair as they frantically paddled towards shore.

At one stage they caught a wave, but the shark was in the same wave, said Snr Sgt Elmer, who arrived on the scene shortly after the attack.

"They managed to get to shore," he said.

"There's a significant bite out of the surfboard.

"I understand there was a fair bit of blood in the water."

Despite the ordeal, Snr Sgt Elmer said the teenager emerged calm from the water.

"She was really clam, she was brave, probably in a little bit of shock. There was no tears," he said.

A third surfer who also saw the shark made it to shore safely but was pretty shaken up, Snr Sgt Elmer said.

He said the actions of the teenager's cousin had saved her life.

"He's done a magnificent job.

"He's extremely brave in his actions. He's probably saved her life," Snr Sgt Elmer said.

It was the second shark attack in Australia today, with a man surfing on the far north coast of NSW also bitten.

The man has been named by ABC Television as 31-year-old Jonathon Beard of Brisbane.

The man was in a stable condition after being bitten on the fleshy part of his left thigh while surfing about 70m offshore.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 61,00.html

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[helmi]

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Date: January 11, 2009
Location: Tasmania, Australia

Girl (13) was surfing at Binalong Bay when she was bitten on her right leg.
The incident occurred at about 15.45 hrs. ( 3.45 pm).
- Shark species presumably involved in incident : Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias)


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Teenage girl bitten by shark off Tasmania's north east

January 11, 2009

A TEENAGE girl in Tasmania is in a stable condition after being bitten by a white pointer shark.
The 14-year-old was swimming at Binalong Bay, near St Helens, in Tasmania's north east when she was bitten on her right leg about 3.45pm today.

Witnesses believed the bite came from a five-metre white pointer, Tasmania Police said.

Staff at the St Helens District Hospital where the teen was taken after the attack refused to comment on the girl's condition, but it is understood she did not sustain life-threatening injuries.

A nurse at the Royal Hobart Hospital said the girl was being airlifted to them for further treatment and she was in a stable condition.

It was the second shark attack in Australia today, with a man surfing on the far north coast of NSW also bitten.

The man was in a stable condition after being bitten on the fleshy part of his left thigh while surfing about 70m offshore.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 77,00.html

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