A Serious Shark Bite After the Dive Ended

Many of us have enjoyed a shark/diver interaction at Shark Junction close to Freeport, Grand Bahama, as had Heidi Ernst (73) from Marshalltown, IA, who had dived there many times.

On June 7, after a first dive, the Island Hopper of the Grand Bahama Scuba dive center, moved to Shark Junction. The divers noticed a glass-bottomed boat of tourists hand-feeding sharks at the surface. The divers waited to allow the feeding frenzy to subside. Once it did, they jumped in and mingled with the animals. (It should be noted that dive guides habitually wear chainmail suits nowadays while tempting the sharks with bait during shark-feed dives.)

She completed the dive, took off her wetsuit, and took a brief swim. As she climbed the ladder into the boat, a shark came "out of nowhere." The shark got a hold of her leg, shaking its head side to side. Ernst instinctively hit the shark, and it let go - allowing her to scramble into the boat.

"There was blood everywhere," Ernst said. She was in severe pain and feared she would bleed to death. She said she knew her leg could not be saved.

After the boat's crew administered first aid and applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, she was treated on land and soon transferred by air ambulance to Miami. "I made the decision with the surgeon to take my leg off," said Ernst, who has worked as a physical therapist for nearly four decades. "It was evident that it could not be saved. So I said, 'Yeah, let's just do it. Let's just amputate."

Ernst said she's been diving for 11 years off the coast of Grand Bahama island and has never feared sharks. "You kind of recognize the same sharks over and over. They haven't shown any aggressive behavior toward divers. They don't threaten us ... I've never felt any danger.

Heidi Ernest is not giving up. She said she does not blame the shark that bit her - and has no plans to turn her back on diving, which she called her "biggest passion," and says she is already looking forward to her next adventure.

P.S.: On May 24, a 28-year-old Connecticut woman swimmer lost a foot to a similar shark bite in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos.

From the Marshalltown Times-Republican, Cedar Rapids Gazette, and other sources