A professional surfer who appeared to have lost his leg in a great white shark attack caught a lucky break when his limb washed ashore and was put on ice.
Doctors hope they can reattach Kai McKenzie’s severed appendage at the southeast Australian trauma center where the 23-year-old surfer was taken after Tuesday’s attack, according to the BBC.
McKenzie was riding the waves off the shores of New South Wales when a 10-foot-long shark nearly took his life. He was able to make it back to the beach where a retired police officer reportedly used a dog’s leash as a tourniquet to keep the badly injured surfer from bleeding to death.
Citing local reports, the BBC said McKenzie had only recently resumed surfing following a serious neck injury.
A GoFundMe set up to defray McKenzie’s medical costs had collected over $122,000 by Wednesday evening.
According to the fundraiser’s organizer, McKenzie may have gotten in some shots of his own against the apex predator that came after him late Tuesday morning.
“He saw the shark approach and was able to fight it off, but suffered a severed right leg,” the page reads.
Surfer Today reports authorities encountered multiple sharks in the Port Macquarie area where McKenzie was injured after he was bitten. There’s reportedly been a spike in great white shark activity in that region.
In November, a 44-year-old old father of two lost his leg where McKenzie was attacked.
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