Shark Attack Victim’s Family Sets The Record Straight

[By Olivia 'OJ' Symcox] The family and girlfriend of shark attack victim Peter James Fraser have set the record straight regarding the facts about the shark attack which occurred in Ponta do Oura last week on Tuesday 22 December. Contrary to reports circulating in the media, Fraser did not lose any limbs, although he did sustain 6 injuries of varying severity from his encounter with the 6 ft shark, which has been tentatively identified as a juvenile Tiger shark.



Fraser, 27, and his girlfriend Nicolene Latsky, were holidaying in the Mozambiquan tourist hotspot of Ponta Do Oura. At approximately 4:30pm on the day of the attack, Fraser was swimming in the bay and caught a wave to shore. As he was exiting the water, he felt something bump his leg. Thinking it was his girlfriend, he thought nothing of it. However, the shark came back at him, biting him on the right knee causing him to fall to his knees in the less than 2 ft of water.



The shark came at him again from his right hand side, biting him beneath the right shoulder and again on his back on the right hand side. The worst of his injuries were sustained when he fought the shark off with both his hands. The shark bit down on his hands, resulting in deep cuts across all of his knuckles on his left hand, almost severing through three tendons on the top of his fingers. His right hand sustained less severe lacerations. Peter then exited the water unassisted, where he was treated by a paramedic who was on holiday at the same location.

Latsky said that “I have never had a fright like that in my life!” According to Latsky, “the attack really took us by surprise because Peter was in such shallow water, the shark’s back and dorsal fin were completely out of the water”. “We were lucky to find someone in Ponta Do Oura who owned a helicopter, and he flew us directly to the border. Pete was then transported by ambulance to the local Manguzi hospital in Kosi Bay where he was stabilized. From there he travelled by ambulance to Ngwelezana Hospital in Empangeni. Finally, from there he travelled once again by ambulance to The Bay Hospital in Richards Bay where he was on a drip with antibiotics for 4 days to prevent infection. We are so grateful to the pilot for taking Pete across the border as it was a very serious situation with Pete losing a lot of blood. Once at the Empangeni hospital we had quite a lengthy wait before Pete could get into theatre, but once he was in there the doctors did a fantastic job during the four and a half hour surgery”. Peter was release from hospital yesterday (28 December), and flew back to Gauteng from Richards Bay.



Fraser, who is said to be in good spirits despite being in quite some pain, will require at least one more operation to reattach the partially severed tendons in his left hand.

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