By Cynthia Roldan
Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH — It was Tuesday evening when Nickolaus Bieber was playing in waist-high water north of the Juno Beach Pier when he turned to his mother and said “something bit me.”
As Christina Bieber pulled him out of the water, she first thought that a Portuguese man-of-war had stung her 6-year-old son. But after taking a closer look, she knew it was something more.
Nickolaus’ surgeons on Wednesday confirmed that he had been bitten by a shark. Though the bite to his upper back thigh was about 12 inches in circumference, the shark missed major vessels and nerves, both surgeons said.
Nickolaus’ father, Matthew Bieber, said it was “pretty impressive” how the wound was stitched up. “It gives us a lot of hope,” he said.
Dr. David Rankin, a plastic surgeon, said Nickolaus’ injury was mostly to the soft tissue and that so far the tissue that was replaced has taken. He and Dr. Michael West, a trauma surgeon, praised the efforts of rescue workers.
So did Nickolaus’ parents.
“I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was bad,” said Christina, as she revisited the Tuesday incident, which took place just after 7 p.m. in the 3800 block of State Road A1A.
She said she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Nickolaus’ leg. A passerby on the beach then helped prepare him for the incoming ambulance. He was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center, where he was first stabilized by West’s team.
“He’s a very luck individual,” West said. “This was a significant shark bite when compared to the size of his leg.”
Rankin said he’s optimistic Nickolaus will regain full mobility of his leg; he’s likely to spend at least a week in the hospital.
The incident is the 12th reported shark bite in Florida this year and the second in Palm Beach County.
Rough surf brought on by Tropical Storm Debby may be to blame for the incident, since it brings sharks closer to shore in search of their next meal, said George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. During storms, smaller animals that can’t swim well get pushed toward shore and sharks naturally follow, he said.
And when the waters are murky and turbid, he added, sharks may misinterpret the splashes of a human in the water as prey.
“The take-home message is you shouldn’t be scared, but you should be smart,” Burgess said. “Sharks are out there trying to make a living in an area where we’re trying to have fun.”
It was a message that Christina Bieber echoed.
“It’s a freak thing that happened,” she said. “People shouldn’t be scared of the water. ... It was just: wrong place, wrong time.”
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