Kaua'i shark victim tells his tale of survival
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See video of shark attack victim Hokuanu Aki as he describes how he escaped with his life |
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
and Joan Conrow
Special to The Advertiser
Hokuanu Aki told family and friends from his hospital bed yesterday that as he struggled under water, punching and grabbing at a shark that had its jaws around his leg, he could feel the spirit of his late brother trying to save him.
Wallis Punua photo
The 17-year-old Kaua'i High student was recovering at The Queen's Medical Center last night following Monday's shark attack on Kaua'i. He was flown to O'ahu from Wilcox Hospital and was listed in fair condition.
Friends Keith Andrade-Kaauwai, right, Jayson Smith, center, and Matthew Punua visited shark attack victim Hokuanu Aki yesterday.
Aki's left leg was amputated below the knee following the shark attack at Brennecke Beach.
Before leaving the Garden Isle, the popular Kaua'i High senior spent some time with his close friends. Wallis Punua, kumu of Aki's halau, said he got a call at 7:30 yesterday morning from Aki who asked that his friends visit.
Punua took his 15-year-old son, Matthew, and a couple of other friends to the hospital. Punua said an upbeat Aki was excited to see his friends and also to tell his story of survival.
Aki is a strong, athletic boy who enjoys basketball as well as performing with the halau as a fire dancer. Punua said Aki called on his strength and spiritual help to help him survive the attack.
"He lost a brother about a year ago," Punua said of Harlan Aki, 21, who was killed in a motorcycle crash Aug. 18, 2000, on O'ahu. "At that time when he was going down under water, he felt the spirit of his brother pulling him and helping him to survive."
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Aki told Punua that the shark, which Aki estimated at 15 feet, grabbed him by the left ankle and took him under water for about a minute. Aki tried reaching for the shark's gills, punching it in the nose and opening the mouth. Finally, the boy stuck four fingers in the shark's eye, gouged the eye out, and the shark released him, Punua said.
After some condo resident reported seeing sharks offshore, and because the water was still murky, authorities kept the beach closed yesterday.
Punua said Aki was upbeat, but also struggled with the severe pain and an apparent reaction to a blood transfusion. Most of the time, Punua said, Aki talked about getting his life back to normal.
Aki said he wants to be healthy enough to take part in the school's May Day program, where he will reign as king for the second straight year. Aki also is a star fire dancer at the Kaua'i Coconut Beach hotel and member of a band that is scheduled to take part in the annual Brown Bags to Stardom contest.
"This is going to be a challenge for him, but I envision good things because having worked with him, he's the type when he's alone, he's going to work on doing his own thing and perfecting it," Punua said. "This kid will be walking and he will be doing a lot of stuff because he has that determination."
County lifeguards yesterday continued to advise swimmers to stay out of the water for about a mile on either side of Brennecke Beach, which forms the eastern end of Po'ipu Beach Park.
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"Some tourists reported seeing some sharks in the water from their condominium near Lawai Beach Resort (west of Brennecke)," said Fire Battalion Chief Ernest Moniz. "To be safe, we made some passes in our Jet Ski, but didn't see anything. But because the water was still so murky, we decided to keep the beach closed for one more day."
Michael Coots knows post-attack stresses; he lost his foot in a 1997 shark attack.
Public safety officials will assess the situation this morning and make a decision on whether to reopen the shoreline.
In an interview with News 8 from his hospital bed, Aki said he struggled for his life and remembered thinking:
"I cannot die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die here. It's too early to die."
Aki recalled the shark "tossing me all over the place. It had my leg caught in his mouth. And then I felt my leg break. I just want to be able to walk as soon as possible."
Michael Coots, who knows what it's like to lose a limb in a shark attack, waited for several hours at the Kaua'i hospital but was unable to see Aki before he was taken to O'ahu.
Although he was unable to visit with Aki, Coots said he did talk to his father, Harmon Aki. "I told him about phantom pain and other things to expect. It's hard, because there is really nobody to tell you what to do," Coots said.
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Phantom pain or sensation is experienced by most amputees at one time or another. It involves the feeling of having a limb when no limb is present or experiencing pain at the amputation site. The feeling can range from tingling sensations to sharp, stabbing pain.
Shark attack victim Hokuana Aki says he wants "to be able to walk as soon as possible."
Coots had to find out for himself how to manage during his recovery after he was attacked by a shark while bodyboarding at Waiokapua Bay, also known as Major's, on Oct. 28, 1997. He was just 18 when the shark grabbed his right leg, and he had to pound it on the mouth and head with his fists until it loosened its hold.
The shark removed Coots' leg at mid-calf before he was able to make his way to shore. Since then, the gentle, soft-spoken young man has undergone surgeries and physical therapy, been outfitted with a prosthesis device and returned to bodyboarding.
Coots said he wanted to visit Aki because "he's probably going through the exact same thing I did. I would've told him everything is going to be OK. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure he'll be back in the water in no time."
Witnesses to Monday's shark attack said Aki was lucky to receive immediate care from an unidentified nurse who was visiting the island. The nurse applied a tourniquet and gave aid until paramedics arrived.
"It probably saved his life to have that nurse there," said Kaua'i resident Bill Swanson, who was one of the first persons on the scene. "He had lost a lot of blood."
Alicia Pimental, a recent Kaua'i High graduate who knows Aki, said he often is seen bodyboarding at Brennecke Beach. "He's a water boy, but not as much as some of the other kids. His brothers are all into it more than him. But he could handle himself," she said.
Don Heacock, state aquatic biologist for Kaua'i, said the attack on Aki underscores the danger of swimming in murky water, which sharks use to their advantage to hunt sea turtles and other prey. The water around Brennecke, named for a doctor who has a house fronting the beach, and elsewhere on Kaua'i was dark brown yesterday following several days of heavy rain.
Heacock said people should not get the idea that Aki was attacked because sharks mistake bodyboarders for turtles.
"I hear that all the time and it's crazy," he said. "Sharks will bite at anything."
The attack on Aki was the second shark attack this year in Hawai'i. On Jan. 1, a Los Angeles man was bitten on the buttocks while snorkeling off Olowalu on Maui.
There are an average of three to four shark incidents a year in the Islands. The last fatal attack was 10 years ago.
Correction: A photo credit for Wallis Punua was misspelled in a previous version of this story.
