Two NSW Police highway patrol cars carrying blood from two hospitals stopped on the Spit Bridge in a 10-second handover described as being akin to a Formula 1 pit stop to deliver blood to the ambulance carrying the 27-year-old man attacked by a bull shark at Manly on Monday.
The man, from Wollongong, is now in hospital recovering after an operation on his lower leg. While the blood drop improved his chances of survival, he remains in a critical condition.
The man was loaded into an ambulance after CPR was performed.Credit: James Brickwood
The shark attack was the third in Sydney within 26 hours, and all beaches on the northern beaches have been closed.
Steve Pearce, the chief executive of Surf Life Saving, NSW, said another 30 drum lines had been deployed and drones were flying over the beaches on Tuesday.
“As a result of this spate of attacks, three attacks in around 24 hours is unprecedented in Sydney,” Pearce said.
“The beaches are closed. The beaches are unsafe. For your own personal safety do not swim for the next 48 hours.”
Despite two off-duty doctors on the scene, and the application of several tourniquets – including by a surfer using his board’s leg rope – the man lost life-threatening amounts of blood.
Acting superintendent of NSW Ambulance Christie Marks said the man needed 13 units of blood and would likely have died if he hadn’t received it.
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It was for situations like this that they put in place procedures where police meet ambulances en route “for those patients that just are not going to make it to a hospital”.
But two police cars and that amount of blood was extraordinary.
“And 13 units of blood is a lot of blood for one patient,” she said. “We had two police highway patrol cars that met at the Spit Bridge and, then, in what they said was almost like an F1 pitstop of 10 seconds where they just opened the door [and transferred the blood].
“It’s amazing everybody working together – lifesavers, lifeguards off duty, and paramedic officers that were there, and then our team [giving him] every chance of surviving.”
Despite warnings over loudspeakers and signs saying the beach was closed, some people were still in the water in Manly just after 6am on Tuesday.
Premier Chris Minns told 2GB on Tuesday he didn’t have a silver bullet for increasing beach safety.