NSW: February shark attack victim recovering well

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2001
NSW: February shark attack victim recovering well

SYDNEY, April 3 AAP - A teacher mauled by a shark on the New South Wales north coast
two months ago today said he was making a good recovery and had already been back in the
water.

Mark Butler, 40, was attacked by a Bull shark as he surfed at Brooms Head on February 3.

Mr Butler, a teacher at Yamba Public School, suffered severe injuries to his left thigh,
losing a litre of blood as he staggered 500 metres along a beach to raise the alarm.

The incident has left him with a permanent saucer-shaped wound in his leg where the
muscle was torn away, and he is still not able to walk properly.

As well as the 80 stitches he received initially, Mr Butler's wound required further
attention by his GP, leaving him with a sizeable hole that still requires bandages.

Despite the wound and ongoing physiotherapy, Mr Butler said he was making a good recovery
and had even ventured back into the water.

"I am doing very well. My leg's much stronger than it was and I am almost using it
normally," he told AAP.

"I have done a lot of physiotherapy, I've worked hard on it, and I have built the leg
up a lot above the wound. But the wound itself is not building up because there is no
muscle in it.

"I got used to having pain in my leg for eight weeks. The only trouble I have now is
walking down a slope."

Fisheries scientists confirmed the shark that attacked Mr Butler was a three-metre
Bull shark - a species of whaler - by making moulds of the teeth that lodged in Mr Butler's
surfboard.

"I'm just glad I didn't see it, I would've died of fright," he said.

Mr Butler said he had maintained a positive attitude since the attack and that he is
happy with the progress of his "emaciated" leg.

"Just in the last week or so I have just pretended that it doesn't exist and started
treating it like a normal leg, making it realise that it's just got to do these things
that I want to do."

Mr Butler said he would return to work at Yamba Public School at the beginning of the
second term in May.

"I'm going very well and I'm very grateful to have the leg, actually," he said.

Meanwhile, another surfer attacked by a shark on the north coast yesterday is recovering
in Coffs Harbour hospital.

Richard Ellis, 40, was attacked yesterday morning as he surfed in an area known as
the "V Wall" off Nambucca Heads.

He sustained severe injuries to the calf of his right leg in the attack.

A whaler shark is believed responsible for the attack.

AAP kp/rp/jas/de

KEYWORD: SHARK BUTLER

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.