By Connie Leinbach
Hannah Smith sprang into action when a woman in the water at the lifeguard beach late Saturday afternoon ran onto the shore exclaiming that she was bitten.
At first, the woman thought it had been a crab, but Hannah, 23, is certified in wilderness first aid saw the multiple wounds on the woman’s foot and knew differently.
It was around 6 p.m., after the lifeguards had left, and getting near low tide (7:37 p.m.) and Hannah, who was on the beach with her sister, Bethany, noticed a man whistling to a woman out near the sand bar to come in.
“I noticed these fish were jumping out of the water beaching themselves and the seagulls were having a field day,” Hannah said. “And I looked down and her feet are, like, all torn up, both feet, one worse than the other,” she said. “The left foot had a really big incision along the top arch and some along the heel and scratch marks.”
Hannah got a towel and wrapped the woman’s foot, sat the woman down in a chair and got her feet elevated, “which is what you’re supposed to do to keep the blood from pooling and to get it to clot.”
Bethany, called 911, told the dispatcher it was a shark bite though not that bad and when the dispatcher asked if she wanted an ambulance, Bethany said that the patient didn’t want to pay for an ambulance.
Several bystanders helped keep pressure on the woman’s foot and a group helped carry the woman to her car.
“Everyone (on the beach) was kind of helping,” she said.
In the parking lot, they washed the wound with water and someone else had a first aid kit, which Hannah used to further treat the wound.
Bethany called her grandmother, Carol Pahl, with whom the sisters are staying, and Pahl went to the scene.
Upon seeing no ambulance, Pahl called 911 again and she was told that the EMS crew was off the island and could not send anyone.
“I said, ‘What? You have nothing? No backup plan?” Pahl said in an interview. The dispatcher said to wrap towels around the wound.
Pahl said she called the Hatteras Ferry terminal, to ask them to hold the ferry on the Ocracoke side, four times and they didn’t answer.
“But, I have to say, they called me back,” she said. “They must have seen that I kept calling and they did call me back.”
Then the injured woman and her companion left.
No one had gotten the woman’s name though Bethany learned she was visiting from Virginia.
Hannah said people on the beach saw several sharks with black tips on their fins going at the jumping fish.
“My amazing granddaughters stayed super calm and were able to get her wrapped up and with others helped her get into her car,” Pahl wrote in a Facebook post about the incident.
She noted that we all have so much faith in 911.
“We expect when we call 911, they’re going to be able to help but in this case, they said, ‘Sorry. There’s nothing we can do,’” she said. “That’s scary. I thought we had two teams (of EMS). That’s what we were told. What would (have happened) if this had been worse?”
Randal Mathews, Ocracoke’s county commissioner, said when contacted Sunday afternoon that he, too, thought the island had two EMS teams, but acknowledged that there are job openings on the Hyde County EMS staff so there’s a personnel shortage.
“We increased the pay so that we could compete, and we increased the budget by a quarter million,” he said about the budget.
Hyde County Manager Kris Noble said in a statement on Monday that the increased funding, effective July 1, will allow for a higher level of coverage and to implement a new leadership structure.
“While this is very positive for the future, we are still in the process of hiring those new positions, as it has been less than 30 days since the new fiscal year (began),” she said, and building the EMS staff is primary.
“On (Saturday), unforeseen staffing issues gave us only one unit and it had left the island,” she said, adding that this is not the norm and it was not planned.
“We very much realize that we need two units, at minimum, to respond to avoid this very thing from happening and we are working towards that goal as aggressively as we can to reach it and avoid a situation like this from occurring again,” she said.
New staff that will come into service the first week of August and Hyde is doing a hiring assessment today.
“While we really are moving at an impressive speed to bring people in, I know we can’t get fully staffed soon enough,” she said. “We will keep working towards making our system the best that it can be and providing a system that residents and visitors alike have faith in during their times of crisis.”
Gail Covington, a family nurse practitioner who has Island Mobile Medical Care, noted that a young boy also was bit on the leg about the same time Saturday as the woman visitor.
She said she’d gotten a call from the parents after they’d gotten bandages at the Variety Store. The mother sent Covington a photo of the wound, which Covington confirmed was a shark bite.
“It was a full jaw mark at the ankle and heel, but it was a small shark,” she said. The family declined treatment and did not give Covington their name.
Covington sees patients on a cash basis and does not take medical insurance but said that had she been called about the beach incident, she could have responded since the beach would be considered “roadside assistance,” for which her insurance covers her.
Caveat to beach goers: It is well known that sharks tend to feed in the late afternoon and early evening.
I am the lady that got bit (Connie Sisk), and I cannot begin to thank Hannah and Bethany and the grandmother and the kind man that carried me from the shore, and a few other people. I was so traumatized, and when I saw Hannah (I think) motioning me out of the water, I began to feel less like crying. You immediately both jumped into action, and did a beautiful job of keeping me calm, cleaning and bandaging me up, keeping me from seeing the injury … all while being so cheerful and kind … the faces of all of you are etched in my mind, and I have asked God to bless each of your lives. I am so very grateful.
As it stands, my big toe isn’t moving much (but that could be because of swelling), I am in no pain and can walk on my foot gently (Praise God). The dr thinks there could be a torn tendon, and will get an MRI and might have to do surgery. In any event, it could have been way so much worse. It took us 5 hrs to get to the hospital in Nags Head. We couldn’t get back after the ER because the ferry wasn’t running. All the places we called were booked, and a nurse let us sleep in the “chapel” in the hospital. That was so very kind of her!
Again, I can’t begin to say enough how grateful and thankful I am for every person that came to my rescue. I hope this finds you (Hannah and Bethany)!
Wishing you God’s best,
Connie
Thanks for replying, Connie. People have wanted to know how you’re doing.
Connie, can you please contact us at info@ocracokeobserver.com. Thank you. Connie Leinbach, editor/co-publisher.
Scary, but what else can be done for such a remote area? And having one more crew is still no guarantee, what if the 2nd crew carried this person up the beach and a 3rd person had a medical emergency? Perhaps the severity of the situation should be considered – is it a good use of EMS to carry someone with a non-life-threatening injury to the hospital (assuming they have someone available to drive them)? Have some coordination in place so 911 or someone can immediately contact the ferry to have it held to wait for their arrival and give them priority. Then EMS is still on the island and ready to help the next person who does have a life threatening situation.
I think that this lack of EMS is in violation of Title 10A, Chapter 13, Subchapter P of the North Carolina Administrative Code. I wonder what OEMS in Raleigh thinks about this.
I love my sisters so much, go Hannah and Bethany!!!
As you should!!! Just seeing your comment was lovely. I believe that, God is merciful, and had your sisters and others in the right place at the right time. Your grandmother is great too. Going through an encounter like that restores your belief in humanity.
I still feel humbled to this day by all that quickly came to my rescue. Your sisters were very calm, extremely kind, and always kept a positive look on their face… Despite what they might have been feeling. God gave you great sisters, and it sounds like you all have a close bond. Which is a real blessing in your life.
Connie, I would love to talk to you further about this incident. If so you’re willing, please send an email to info@ocracokeobserver.com. Thanks. Connie Leinbach, editor/co-publisher.
Comments are closed.