Posted on: Monday, October 11, 2004

Moloka'i shark victim saw shoulder 'gone'

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Davy Sanada was done diving for the day off east Moloka'i and was swimming to shore when he suddenly saw a large shark dead ahead in the murky water bearing straight for him.

"I only saw it when it had me," Sanada, 34, of Kane'ohe, told The Advertiser last night in a phone interview from his hospital bed at Maui Memorial Medical Center. He was being treated for severe wounds to his left shoulder from the attack in shallow waters outside Kupeke Fishpond.

Sanada, a pipefitter at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, said he was done fishing at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday and was heading for shore, his bag of speared fish trailing about 30 feet behind him, when the shark, estimated by officials at 12 feet long, attacked.

"I remember this big force hitting me and this big shadow wrapping me up and I remember just being shaken," he said. "It shocked me. I started panicking. Something had me, then I started flailing away at it."

As quickly as it attacked, the shark let go, Sanada said.

Sanada stood up quickly — the water was only four feet deep — and looked down to see his blood spreading in the water around him.

Then he saw the shark coming back.

"I just started hitting it with my spear (gun). It was not cocked. I had taken the rubber band off already, so I was just poking it," said Sanada.

"Finally it turned and swam off."

Sanada said he could see his friends on the beach about 200 yards away and tried yelling to them, but the distance prevented them from hearing him.

"I looked at my (left) shoulder and it was just gone," he said. "I flipped my wetsuit over it to try and stop some of the bleeding and started walking in. I was yelling for help."

Sanada said he was in shock and a lot of pain.

"I was pretty much ready to pass out a few times," he said. "I thought I was a goner."

Sanada said a woman who heard his cries paddled out to him in her kayak but was unable to steady her boat in the strong current. He said he got off the kayak, walked to the rock wall of the fishpond, climbed onto it and waited for help.

"He was waving for help," said Carol Beadle, who said she and other bystanders assisted Sanada. "I could tell his face was ripped and his shoulder was dislocated."

Sanada said a friend of his, a former firefighter, came to the wall and helped him until paramedics and firefighters arrived. They applied pressure to control Sanada's bleeding until a helicopter airlifted him out, authorities said.

Sanada said he has been diving since high school and never thought something like this could happen to him. He said he has a lot of gratitude and much aloha for those who came to his aid.

Sanada is in stable condition and scheduled to be transferred to The Queen's Medical Center on O'ahu today. Sanada said he can't move around much and is connected to a morphine drip. He said doctors have told him he will need several surgeries, including possibly a complete shoulder reconstruction.

"It's going to be a long battle from here," he said. "It's one of those freak things. You have to respect the ocean and the predators in it and just be smart."

Sanada said he wasn't sure if he will go diving again.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.