The severed leg of a surfer has been retrieved after it washed up on a beach after a shark attack off the mid-north coast of New South Wales.
Kai McKenzie, 23, was surfing at North Shore beach near Port Macquarie on Tuesday morning when a suspected three-metre great white shark bit him.
McKenzie was able to fight it off before catching a wave into shore, where onlookers and an off-duty police officer treated him with makeshift tourniquets to stem the bleeding.
Though his leg was severed, it washed up on shore a short time after the attack and locals put it on ice, NSW police confirmed.
McKenzie and the leg were both airlifted to hospital, amid hopes that surgeons might be able to reattach the severed limb. It has not been revealed if the surgery was successful.
After assessing photographs of the injuries, NSW government shark biologists believe a three-metre white shark was involved in the attack and inflicted “severe injuries” to the surfer’s right leg.
NSW ambulance service Hastings South acting duty manager, Kirran Mowbray, said McKenzie was recovering in hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Mowbray said a quick-thinking off-duty officer saw the incident unfold and rushed to help.
“He used the lead off the dog as a tourniquet to wrap around the young man’s leg and essentially saved his life until the paramedics got there,” she said.
McKenzie was taken to Port Macquarie base hospital and later transported to John Hunter hospital in Newcastle on Tuesday afternoon.
“He was quite calm and able to talk to us – he was completely with it. He’s just a really brave and courageous young man,” Mowbray said.
McKenzie, who is a sponsored surfer, had only recently returned to the water after suffering a significant neck injury.
“So happy to be back surfing after having a fractured neck,” he posted on Instagram in January.
Well wishes for McKenzie flowed in from surfing publications after the attack. Tracks sent their thoughts to “Kai and his loved ones during this difficult time” and Surfer Magazine wished a “speedy recovery for this young legend”.
A GoFundMe established to assist McKenzie’s family with rehabilitation and medical expenses had attracted more than $70,000 since the page was set up on Wednesday morning.
His aunt Michelle McKenzie said the young man was “an incredible surfer, skater, musician, videographer and all-round legend”.
“He has always lived life to the fullest squeezing every minute out of the day,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon.
“Yesterday he was attacked by a shark at Port Macquarie, doing what he loved … he suffered life changing injuries.”
North Shore beach is isolated and accessible by a dirt road. There had been several shark sightings to the north of Port Macquarie in preceding days.
A tagged great white shark was detected at multiple locations at Sawtell, near Coffs Harbour, on Monday and Tuesday.
Life-savers evacuated the water at a local beach after sighting an unidentified 2.5 metre shark on Monday.
BiteMetrix, a website that provides surfers with data on increased risk of shark-human interaction, noted a continued increase in great white shark activity in the area during the past week.
The incident came after an attack on 44-year-old surfer Toby Begg by a great white shark on Lighthouse Beach, south of Port Macquarie, last year. Begg was saved by an off-duty emergency department doctor.
- with AAP
