Thirteen-year-old champion surfer Bethany Hamilton of Princeville is recovering well in a Wilcox Memorial Hospital bed. Hamilton is in stable condition a day after a shark attacked her at Tunnels surf break in Ha‘ena, taking away her left arm just
Thirteen-year-old champion surfer Bethany Hamilton of Princeville is recovering well in a Wilcox Memorial Hospital bed.
Hamilton is in stable condition a day after a shark attacked her at Tunnels surf break in Ha‘ena, taking away her left arm just below the shoulder.
She is taking things day by day, underwent a blood transfusion Saturday and is preparing for a second surgery Monday.
“She’s blowing everyone’s mind with her cadence,” said her father Tom Hamilton, who along with his wife Cheri and sons Noah and Tim are spending their days and evenings with the girl as she recovers in the hospital.
The family has started a benefit fund and donors should be able to make contributions at First Hawaiian Bank branches by early this week. The Hanalei Surf Company is also accepting donations by mail at P.O. Box 790, Hanalei HI 96714. The funds are to help with the girl’s rehabilitation and prosthetic care she will need following her hospitalization. E-mails to the girl can be sent to bethanyhamilton@mac.com.
Her brother Noah Hamilton is producing a Web site for his sister – www.bethanyhamilton.com – that is expected to be up and running in a few days.
“The message we’re trying to send out is for people to track her recovery and get involved by just following what’s going on and telling other people about it,” he said.
Steve Cranston of Honolulu, the Hawai‘i representative for Rip Curl surfing products, said his company is planning benefit events for Bethany on Kaua‘i and on the North Shore of O‘ahu during the upcoming Triple Crown of Surfing professional championships scheduled to begin later this month.
The young surfer is a Rip Curl-sponsored rider.
She talked of the attack Saturday in interview given to KGMB TV in Honolulu.
“My arm was hanging in the water, and it just came and bit me,” Hamilton told the Honolulu television station of the shark attack on Friday morning.
Dr. David Rovinsky, her physician at Wilcox Memorial Hospital said in the interview that Hamilton’s background in competitive surfing helped her survive.
“This is a woman who is a highly trained athlete, and because of that she’s able to handle a huge blood loss really well,” Rovinsky said.
The TV report said Bethany could go home from the hospital as early as Thursday, though doctors are still keeping a watch on her for any possible infection from the shark bite.
News of the shark attack rapidly spread across the world via the Internet and cable TV on Saturday. Web searches showed the story featured in London, in Sydney and even on the Web site of the Al-Jazeera Arabic TV network in Qatar, a Middle East nation that borders Saudi Arabia.
An amateur surfing contest scheduled for the Pine Trees surf spot at Hanalei Bay was postponed Saturday in part due to safety reasons and in part to honor Bethany Hamilton, according to a report from the North Shore.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
