The cost of injury in the water

Saw this in recent Divernet.

SHARK VICTIM BITTEN BY MEDICAL BILLS

35-year-old South African diver Craig Bovim narrowly escaped death after both his arms were extensively damaged by a large ragged tooth shark on Christmas Eve. Now he faces an £11,000 bill for the experience.

Bovim was snorkelling off Scarborough beach when he noticed a 3 metre long shark nearby. With 17 years experience of diving and surfing in the area, he had seen large ragged tooth sharks before and was unconcerned. Unfortunately the shark became aggressive and in fending it off, Bovim ended up with both hands inside the shark's mouth and suffered severe lacerations. He lost 2 litres of blood before being airlifted to hospital where surgeons managed to save his arms, though he is unlikely to be able to use them for 9 months.

Having survived the ordeal, Bovim has now been landed with a bill of 160,000 South African Rand - over £11,000 - for medical costs and helicopter rescue. Local divers and surfers are fundraising to help him meet the expense. 30 January 2003

It poses a few questions:

Is this unique to SA or does the same thing apply elsewhere in the world. Wherever you are snorkelling/diving let me know!!

Would the same charges have applied if a diver had to be choppered off with DCS?

Mark

All told, I think he got a great deal!!! In the US he'd be facing no less than 3X that amount. Thank goodness for DAN.

Is the "ragged-tooth" that different behaviorally from the sand-tiger? As of about a year ago I read that there had never been an attack by the sand tigers - they surely look vicious, though.

Interesting that Kasey. 3 x eh. Brings home the need for insurance does'nt it? I wonder how many snorkellers or I suppose swimmers? are aware of the potential cost implication of this, and for those who do not have insurance well ......would they be better off being killed by the shark?

Kasey, forgot to add hows the Titan treating you? My package should arrive any day now. Look forward to getting it wet.

In South Africa Carcharias taurus is referred to as the ragged tooth shark, in America you refer to it as the Sand Tiger Shark and here in OZ we know them as the grey nurse shark. they are all the same species (with seperate populations). In Australia the grey nurse is our most endangered marine species with less than 500 left.

I refer to them as the great big puppy dogs of the ocean, they are the most graceful of all sharks and are a very curious creature. This is the first report I've EVER heard of them attacking a snorkeller... very rare occurence and the poor person was very unfortunate.

Kasey, forgot to add hows the Titan treating you?

No recent problems. Backscatter devised a fix to the poorly designed strobe arm bases - it seems to be holding up for now. What strobes you use and how often you dive would determine how long they hold up. Otherwise, the system has been great. The camera mounts easily, and is reliable underwater. Let me know if you have any problems, I've got several hundred dives with it.

Kasey

I don't have my book handy but I don't think DAN covers an accident within 50 miles of your home. It says he was a South African diver but doesn't say where he lived. It's still a good idea to have medical insurance along with DAN. Most medical insurance will cover you anywhere in the world, including evacuation. The problem is that the guys in Belize, PNG, or wherever may not accept that as payment.

Why is it that so many resorts and dive operations ask for you to pay a contribution for their chamber so that you are guaranteed to receive treatment, although you have DAN insurance. I don't mind contributing to their chamber but thay almost hold you hostage for it.

I don't have my book handy but I don't think DAN covers an accident within 50 miles of your home.

Crikey is that true? I bet that's caught a few people out. Smallprint no doubt!!

Actually, I believe the 50 mile limitation is only on dive vacation cancellation and interruption coverage.

BENEFIT C - DIVING VACATION CANCELLATION AND DIVING VACATION

INTERRUPTION

For purposes of Benefit C, the following definitions are added:

Trip means:

1. a period of round-trip travel away from Your Home Country to a destination that is at least 50 miles

from an Insured Person’s main place of residence.

Tom, I believe you are correct. Rodale's states that DAN doesn't cover evacuations if within 50 miles of your home. However, I can't find where it says that in the DAN certificate. The only other thing I can find is that it doesn't cover non-diving accidents within 50 miles of your home. Would this apply to swimmers and/or snorkellers?

I'd assume that it wouldn't cover swimmers, but snorkelers maybe.

Covered Dive means a recreational dive or diving while a scuba instructor, dive master, underwater

photographer, or while performing research under the auspices and following the diving safety guidelines

of the American Academy of Underwater Scientists (AAUS). A dive begins upon entry into the water

and ends upon exit from the water. A Covered Dive must begin while Coverage is in force.

Depends on your definition of a "recreational dive" I guess.

DAVE H.

The South African Raggy, I think, gets terrotorial during breeding cycle/seasons and have been known to bump divers on occasions, but no bitings recorded.

I am surprised with this attack as the Raggy is almost exclusively a fish eating species, I am surprised too (if it was in fact a Raggy-Attack) that the wounds were not filled with broken off teeth. Wish we could get some more detailed info on this, I'll try and contact a mate in Durban.

Maybe he had eaten fish earlier and had urinated in the water?

M'mmm.

This story does seem a little unusual. I have a feeling something is being left out to attract the simpathy of possible monetary contributions. Was he spear fishing?

I dive frequently off North Carolina and have heard of Sandtigers stealing fish from spear fisherman and sometimes being a little aggressive in doing so but I can't believe this was an unprevoked attack. Stories like this one often give sharks a bad wrap then we find out later that the victim was doing something he shouldn't have been doing.

I heard a story similar with the Jesse Arbagass(??) story in Florida. I don't know for sure if this story is true but I had heard that the boys uncle was fishing and had the bull shark hooked and was trying to reel it in. The story goes that Jesse ran in to see the catch and was bitten by the shark. Although still very tragic, if this is true you can hardly blame the shark. This story makes more sense to me in that the uncle was able to "wrestler"the shark to shore. This story suposedly had come from a Coast Guard officer from Florida. I heard this version was left out of the media to help with monetary contributions.

Sandy

Very, very good point about the spear fishing Sandy.

First rule of spear fishing - The shark has first choice, this may well explain those injuries!

Supposed unprovoked attacks go for the legs.

That was not true, the bull shark did attack the child unprovoked. Anyone who has done shore dives down here knows we have great deal of Bulls that patrol the shore line. Fact is eventfully someone gets attacked. That's a risk you take with that type of fish.

The uncle in the story was not fishing, the shark did not have a hook in it, that was just a rumor based off people who find it hard to believe someone would be that brave.

Two months later in Tampa bay, a wife watched her husband get eaten by what they believe to be another Bull shark 10 feet off the end of his dock in the ICW.

Now I do my fair share of spearfishing, and if the shark wants it, he gets it. Unless it's a 50 pound Cobia, than he really needs to show me he wants it.

This past summer, one of the boat captain's in North Carolina radioed that he was on the Caribsea, which is a wreck loaded with Sandtigers. He was hunting for artifacts and was carrying a large goodie bag and a crow bar. A Sandtiger came at him several times and he had to hit it on the nose several times with the crow bar to fend it off. He is thinking of banning spearfishing on the wrecks that are noted for Sandtigers. The Sandtigers down there are starting to associate spearfisherman with food.

I'm still very very doubtful that the attack in South Africa was by a raggie. It is most unusual for a raggie (grey nurse) to display this behaviour, I would think that the shark would be more likely to be a bullshark or perhaps a whaler.

Grey nurse will take a speared fish, I've seen it done a couple of times where they will pinch a jewfish or a kingfish. But as for them attacking a snorkeller on the surface....hmmmmmm.

A bull shark on the other hand would not hesitate. We had someone killed yesterday in Queensland by a bull shark as they were swimming in the gold coast canals.