Harvey Miller won't be able to walk for two to three months after a tiger shark ripped into his leg while he was snorkeling off Bellows Beach, but "it's better than leaving the island in a box," he said yesterday.

Miller, a 36-year-old civil lawyer from Toledo, Ohio, left his bed at The Queen's Medical Center yesterday for a news conference after undergoing a two-hour operation to repair his damaged left leg.

As he sat in a wheelchair in his hospital gown, Miller was clearly groggy and could barely keep his eyes open at times.

"I'm (usually) a bit of a jokester," Miller told reporters as he apologized for his appearance.

Tiger sharks aren't rare in Hawaiian waters. But an attack from any breed of shark on the Windward side is, said Randy Honebrink, investigative shark resource coordinator for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources's Division of Aquatic Resources.

The last shark attack on the Windward side occurred in 1958, when 15-year-old surfer Billy Weaver was killed off Lanikai.

"It's very unusual," Honebrink said.

After his attack, Miller said he joked that he wanted to buy lottery tickets because "I think the odds are in my favor today."

"I didn't know that where you have turtles, you have sharks," he said. " ... It's their environment. We're visitors to it. The best we can do is not look like food."

One small turtle and one large turtle that also had been attacked by a shark — or sharks — washed ashore at Lanikai and Bellows Thursday, and Honebrink sent their photos to the International Shark Attack File in Florida.

Based on the photos and Miller's description, the organization concluded that Miller had been bitten by an 8-foot tiger shark, Honebrink said.

Miller had been snorkeling by himself in clear water 150 feet from shore at about 3 p.m. Thursday looking at fish.

"They got kind of spooked and I saw the snout of the shark," he said. "It looked all gray to me. Very scary."

The tiger shark "bit me and spun me around (and) I punched it twice below the dorsal fin. I wasn't even sure it had bitten me."

Once Miller realized what had happened, he said, "I just remember saying, 'Oh, God, not like this. No way.' "

As he struggled back to shore, he said he yelled, "Shark, help."

'HE'S MY HERO'

Ray Howell, a visitor from south Texas, was playing cards with his family on the lanai of their Bellows cabin.

Howell, a 57-year-old financial controller for an Alcoa refinery plant, tore off his shirt and glasses and waded into the ocean.

"He's my hero. ... I owe my life to that man," Miller said.

Miller said he remembers hearing a stranger's voice — Howell's — saying, "I'm here."

Howell, who spoke to The Advertiser yesterday, said he remembers Miller's first words: " 'My leg's broken' or 'It broke my leg.' "

While at first Howell thought he was dealing with a swimmer with a broken leg, he quickly realized it was something else when he saw an open wound and blood oozing in the water.

As he swam Miller to shore, Howell looked behind them for sharks, thinking, " 'If something happens, I'll deal with it.' I was not going to let him go into shock."

Once on shore, Howell got his first good look at the damage the tiger shark had inflicted with a single bite. The most frightening wound was a deep gash that was "flayed open down to the bone," he said. "Another incision on the other side was not nearly as bad. And he had broken skin on top of the kneecap."

The attack left Miller with two main injuries — one at the knee and a 12-inch wound in back, "which took some of the bone, the muscle and the nerve," said Dr. Patrick Murray, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Queen's who operated on Miller.

The bite had a "tremendous amount of force" that broke a bone and "removed a fairly large portion of his leg by the knee," Murray said. "He still has half of the muscle that will allow normal function, like stepping off the forefoot."

Miller also lost a portion of one of the three major nerves in the area and may need a nerve graft operation to restore some muscle function, the surgeon said.

The major tendon that extends Miller's leg also was severed, he said.

"His prognosis is good. If all goes well, he'll be discharged on Monday," but he will not walk for two to three months, Murray said.

VICTIM THANKFUL

Yesterday, Miller said he was saved by the "Heavenly Father" and he thanked everyone who came to his aid, especially Howell, who used a beach towel on Miller as a tourniquet.

Murray called the compression on Miller's wounds "very important."

Howell, who lives in Victoria, Texas, has no advanced emergency response training. But each year his company requires employees to undergo eight to 16 hours of safety orientation and training.

Yesterday, with city and state officials warning people to stay out of Windward waters until around 1 p.m., Howell took his family to Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park, where he refused to take credit for saving Miller.

"He saved his own life by responding to the shark (by punching it) and calling for help," Howell said. "If he had not taken the actions that he did, they'd have been washing up a body. He took actions on his own."

Finally, when told of Miller's appreciation and gratitude, Howell said quietly, "You'd do the same thing."

Miller's father-in-law called Howell yesterday to thank him, but no arrangements have been made to reunite the two visitors who met in the waters off Bellows Beach.

"I might call his family before we leave (on Tuesday) just for a status update," Howell said, "but I don't expect to hear from him. We just happened to be at the same place at the same time. Paths cross in people's lives. If they cross again, we'll deal with it."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.