Nurses save life of man in shark attack

Steve Bruemmer is home after a weeks-long stay in a California hospital.

Bruemmer was attacked by a shark that caused serious injuries to his legs and stomach, according to the Natividad Medical Center.

“It grabbed me and pulled me up and then dove me down in the water, and then, of course, it spit me out. I’m not a seal,” he said in a video released by the hospital. “It’s looking for a seal. We’re not their food. It spit me out. And it was looking at me right next to me. I thought it could bite me again, so I pushed it with my hand and I kicked at it with my foot and it left.”

If not for the help of nurses and a doctor at the beach, he believes he would not be alive.

“There were two ICU nurses and a doctor at the beach who took their own t-shirts and turned it into tourniquets,” he said. “I had tourniquets on my legs and arms within five minutes to stop the bleeding, otherwise I’d bleed to death.”

Their help plus the care from the hospital is why he is headed home.

“I was in a tough spot and they were so caring,” he said. “I’m going home now, but I want to thank Natividad and the good Samaritans, and the good people on the beach, and that lead-footed ambulance driver. Without all of you, I don’t make it. And the blood donors, oh thank you so much.”

(This story originally appeared in ABCActionNews.com.)