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15 December 2006 | 2:50 AM
Boy who lost leg in shark bite refused transfusion
12th December 2006, 6:00 WST
The teenage surfer whose leg was bitten off by a shark near Esperance ordered rescuers not to allow him to be given the blood transfusions he urgently needed because he was a Jehovah’s Witness, it emerged last night.
Despite struggling to stay conscious from the pain and shock of the attack, Zac Golebiowski was adamant that he would not break his religious beliefs by accepting blood — a sin under the controversial code practised by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“He’s got a faith he believes in, and he’s strong as a young man,” the 15-year-old’s father Les reportedly said. Zac was so paranoid that another person’s blood would be pumped into him, compromising his faith, that his strict instructions were written on a piece of paper in case he passed out before reaching hospital.
Details of the horrifying shark attack, which occurred about 40m offshore at Wharton Beach on December 2, were revealed after the Golebiowski family sold their story to a current affairs television show and a women’s magazine.
Zac was surfing with his older brother Sam and friend Joe Redman in waist-high waves in the moments leading up to the vicious attack.
He later told his mother Anne that he remembered paddling back out after catching a wave when the shark, believed to be a white pointer, came up behind him and pulled him under the water.
Zac believed he blacked out from the pain but surfaced and was able to call for help. Sam said he turned around to see Zac being attacked.
“You could tell he was being attacked because the water was red all around him,” Sam reportedly said. “I remember yelling out ‘no’ and started making my way over there towards him.”
Sam and Joe paddled to Zac’s aid and took him to shore.
A New Zealand couple fishing nearby heard the boys’ cries for help and rushed to the beach, applying a tourniquet to stem the blood flow. With just one bite the shark took off Zac’s leg just above the right knee and severely punctured his left calf. The couple then started driving Zac the 80km towards Esperance, where an ambulance met them on the road. He was then flown to Perth.
Dr Adrian Brooks operated on the teenager at Royal Perth Hospital and he and his team reportedly worked on Zac for four hours, using tight tourniquets on both his legs to prevent further blood loss before or during the operation. They respected the boy’s wishes not to have a blood transfusion.
Mrs Golebiowski said Zac had hardly spoken since the pain set in after the attack. He has reportedly sworn to take to the waves to surf again but has been too scared to look below his waist, hiding his head when nurses change his dressings to avoid seeing his injuries.
A St John Ambulance spokesman said any request for ambulance officers not to give him a blood transfusions would not have affected treatment given. “Ambulance officers have saline solutions to replace patients’ fluids and obviously, these are non-blood products,” he said.
A Royal Perth Hospital spokesman would not comment on Zac’s case but said the hospital had the facilities to treat patients who refused blood transfusions on medical or health grounds.
GABRIELLE KNOWLES