By Janette Neuwahl
The doctor who treated Muizenberg's first shark attack victim has released a statement to clarify rumours about his patient's status and said that for 20 minutes, paramedics on the scene had lost 16-year-old John Paul "JP" Andrew's heartbeat.
Derek Miller said John Paul's condition remained stable but serious.
He is in the Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic.
His right leg was amputated above the knee On Monday last week, John Paul was taken to the hospital shortly after his lower right leg was bitten off by what is thought to have been a great white shark.
Miller said John Paul's left leg was also injured in the attack. His right leg was amputated above the knee.
Continues Below ↓
When friends brought him to the beach, he was in severe shock and had a heart attack. It took 20 minutes for paramedics to regain his heartbeat.
When he reached Constantiaberg, Miller said, he was "in shock with a very low blood pressure and had lost a lot of blood". He was given an emergency blood transfusion and sent into surgery, where doctors were able to stop the bleeding and stabilise the teenager.
"After surgery, John Paul was given 20 more units of blood while placed in the intensive care unit. Four days later, his shock finally stabilised.
"His lung function, kidneys and
liver have all shown continuous improvement."
Yet, because of the long period he was in shock, the levels of blood and oxygen to the brain were low at times. This had caused "brain swelling".
Doctors are unsure whether John Paul incurred brain damage because he has been deeply sedated and had yet to wake up.
"Last week we placed a monitor into the skull to allow us to directly measure the pressure around the brain. It showed that the pressures were frequently very high and this high pressure could cause worsening of brain damage," said Miller.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
