Doctors describe shark bite wound after California attack
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The semi-circular shark bite stretched from Maria Korcsmaros' shoulder to her pelvis, with teeth marks visible in the shredded flesh of her arm and torso.
Korcsmaros was training for a half-triathlon over the weekend off the coast of Newport Beach, California, when she "felt something hit her," said Dr. Phillip Rotter of Orange County Global Medical Center, where she was treated after the attack.
Surgeons repaired the massive wound with a shape that Rotter described as "obviously a mouth."
"You could see individual marks from individual teeth," he added.
The 52-year-old Korcsmaros also suffered fractured ribs, lung lesions and damage to the muscles and skin of her upper arm and abdomen. She was expected to survive, but it was too early to know whether she will regain full use of her arm.
The bite likely came from a large great white shark, said marine biologist Chris Lowe, director of Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.
Though difficult to draw a definitive conclusion, he said a large single bite suggests the shark is over 10 feet long. A white shark - also known as a great white - would be the most likely candidate lurking in Southern California waters, he added.
Scientists believe the white shark population off California has been increasing, Lowe said. The latest attack didn't surprise him, and he noted that the public needs to be educated about how to interact with predators in the sea.
"This is the sort of thing we expect to see increase," Lowe said. Still, he pointed out that such attacks remain rare.
Korcsmaros was not immediately sure it was a shark. Lifeguards in a boat who saw her struggling about 100 yards offshore found her gushing blood, doctors and fire officials said.
They saw the last part of the attack and knew she didn't get hit by a boat or watercraft, said Rob Williams, chief lifeguard of the Newport Beach Fire Department's Marine Operations Division.
She was swimming in a wetsuit just outside buoys marking a protected swimming area near a boat route.
Lifeguards pulled her from the water, and she was rushed to the emergency room, where she appeared alert and "remarkably calm," Rotter told reporters at the hospital.
The press conference got interrupted when someone in the audience apparently fainted as doctors described Korcsmaros' wounds.
Lifeguards and city officials could not confirm a shark bit the mother of three but still moved to protect beachgoers. They kept thousands of people out of the water over the holiday weekend and searched miles of shoreline for the shark.
Lifeguards and officials in Newport Beach were meeting Tuesday to decide whether to reopen Corona Del Mar State Beach.
The ban on entering the water stretched for several miles from the Balboa Pier to the city limits at Crystal Cove State Beach. While people were welcome on the beachfront and pier, lifeguards asked anybody entering the water to return to shore.
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AP writer Christine Armario contributed to this report.