09/12/2003 David Bornman (South Africa) ***Fatal***
Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:00 am
Peter Whale and Brent Mills, two other surfers in the water at the time, witnessed the attack and came to David Borman's aid:
Whale said he heard a loud splash even though there were no sets of waves coming through.
"I looked across and saw this guy in the shark's mouth. It was the biggest shark I've ever seen in my life. It took him under, then came up and just tossed him and then disappeared."
Whale said he shouted "shark!" and they all started paddling in furiously.
Mills said he saw Bornman catch a wave towards the shore.
"But the water around him turned red. The whole wave was just blood."
He paddled out to help the stricken teenager, who told him he couldn't breathe.
"I told him he still had his legs but I could tell the bite was bad. You could see into his body."
Whale, who is trained as a rescue diver, gave Bornman CPR for half an hour but he was dead within minutes.
The victim lost most or all of his blood volume before reaching shore, a phenomenon which accounts for the lack of "gore" in the photographs shown above and has led some viewers to believe the images were manipulated or depicted some type of mannequin.