Boat captain Jacob Johnson has spoken out about pulling his bleeding friend from shark-infested waters off Florida.
Johnson, who was leading a diving trip Tuesday about 30 miles from the Emerald Coast, recalled the moment he realized the situation was far worse than a playful nip. “I was looking over the side of the boat to make fun of him; I thought he got bit by a trigger fish,” he told Fox 10 News. “And he’s surrounded in blood.”
The victim, a 40-year-old man whose name has not been released, had been conducting his final dive of the day alongside Johnson and two other companions when a bull shark attacked. The animal savaged both of his forearms, tearing into an artery on one limb and leaving the other requiring dozens of stitches. The injuries were so severe that the man could not lift himself back onto the vessel.
Johnson described hearing the call for help while he assisted another diver with gear removal. “I was helping one of the other divers get undressed when I heard ‘Help help. I’ve been bit’,” he recounted. The captain noted the strange combination of urgency and composure in his friend’s voice, which initially led him to underestimate the damage.
“There was no time for emotions or critical thinking as far as risk analysis — I just jumped in,” Johnson said. He stripped the injured diver’s equipment and pushed him back aboard the boat, where the remaining crew members immediately mobilized. “Everybody was helping. One guy was getting his shirt off to tourniquet his arm,” Johnson recalled.
The group improvised emergency medical care with remarkable resourcefulness. Another diver produced WoundSeal, a powder designed to halt external bleeding, which his wife had packed for the trip. They applied it liberally to both wounded arms, slowing the hemorrhage before fashioning a tourniquet from zip ties. “I pulled it tight and said, ‘How’s that?’ and he said, ‘I think it’s too tight.’ So I pulled it again,” Johnson recounted. “You’re not bleeding out on my watch.”
Throughout the ordeal, the team kept the victim conscious and calm while awaiting professional rescue. The Coast Guard arrived to rush him to shore, and he was subsequently airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment.
Johnson maintained spiritual focus during the return journey. “I was praying to God that we made it back safely, that we could mitigate as much damage as we could to his arms, and that he was gonna get back to his family,” he shared. “Every one of our prayers were not only heard, but answered.”
The injured diver has already undergone one surgery and is expected to make a full recovery despite the severity of his wounds.
Johnson’s friend survived because four people transformed a pleasure cruise into a floating trauma unit, using a powder meant for kitchen cuts and plastic ties meant for garbage bags to keep a man alive until helicopters could reach him.