Friday, March 25th, 2011
A lifeguard in the Mexican resort of Cancun says a tourist has been attacked by a shark after ignoring warnings to stay out of the water.
Gaviotas beach lifeguard Lazaro Magana says the victim was taken to the hospital Thursday with an 8-inch wound in her foot.
Magana says the woman ventured 100 yards into the water even though he warned swimmers to stay away because of the possible presence of sharks.
Police say the woman is from Russia but haven’t released her name or hometown.
It was the second shark attack in the hotel zone of Cancun in less than two months. A Canadian tourist was seriously injured in early February.
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Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
On Tuesday night, a friend who travelled to Cancun with shark attack victim Nicole Ross told the Toronto Star that Ross is awake in hospital, breathing without a ventilator and chatting with friends sitting at her bedside.
The shark attack happened at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday. Ross had just finished playing beach volleyball with two friends, according to a witness, and then went in the water to cool off.
Suddenly, a shark was spotted in the shallow, waist-deep water, just outside the Caribe Park Royal Grand resort, where the victim was believed to be staying.
A loud whistle sounded and a lifeguard ordered everyone out of the water.
For Ross, it was too late.
A shark bit down on her left leg and when she tried to fight it off, it grabbed her by the left arm.
A lifeguard on a Jet Ski pulled her from the water and took her to shore.
A few minutes later, a piece of the victim’s flesh was rescued from the water. Someone asked for ice to pack it in to take it to hospital for possible grafting, according to Busuttil.
Early media reports out of Mexico said Ross had lost her arm and leg in the attack. But Ross did not have her arm or leg amputated. Dr. Italo Sampablo, the medical director of Hospiten Cancún, said she lost “a large amount of blood” in the attack, which severed muscles, tendons and nerves to her lower leg, forearm and hand.
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Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
According to AFP, a Canadian woman lost an arm and suffered serious injuries to a leg after being attacked by a shark while swimming just off the beach in the resort city of Cancun, local media reported.
“A female shark attacked and left her badly hurt,” Mario Castro, head of the local civil protection office, told the El Diario del Yucatan newspaper.
Nicole Ruth, 38, was hospitalized in grave condition and had “her left arm and thigh detached,” the daily reported.
Apparently the shark was close to the shore to give birth and the woman, who was with a large group of swimmers, got too close, the paper said.
Civil protection forces were trying to locate the animal.
Shark attacks are not common on Mexican beaches. Two people were killed in May 2008 in the Pacific coast town of Zihuatanejo.
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
A U.S. tourist got more then he bargained for when he was attacked by a crocodile while attempting to answer the call of nature in the Mexican resort of Cancun this week.
According to Mexican police 20-year-old Andrew Dales, from Dallas in Texas, confessed that he had been on a mission to relieve himself at the edge of the local Nicupté lagoon, in the popular tourist resort of Cancun, when the crocodile suddenly snapped at him.
He suffered ‘multiple bite wounds’ to his leg and neck and was also left with a head injury after the reptile knocked him to the ground, a police spokesman said.
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