A young Greek-Australian doctor was fatally mauled by a shark in the Whitsunday Island’s Cid Harbour and died short time later after submitted to a local hospital.
33-year-old Victorian doctor Daniel Christidis worked as a research fellow in the urology department at Austin Health in Melbourne. It was believed that Dr Christidis had only recently finished his PhD and was due to begin a training placement at a hospital.
He was among fellow doctors and medical practitioners on the first of a five-day cruise in the Whitsundays on Monday evening when at about 5.35pm, while sharing a paddleboard with a female friend, he was attacked.
“They arrived in Cid Harbour with plans to stay overnight and anchored there in the mid-afternoon,” Patrol Inspector Steve O’Connell said.
“The man and woman who was onboard have gone into the water in the late afternoon and they were taking turns at using a stand-up paddleboard. The woman has gotten out of the water off the standing paddleboard and the man has gone into the water, shortly thereafter he was the victim of an attack by the shark.”
He suffered severe injuries to his left thigh, right calf and left wrist, and the group gave first aid to him after he was pulled from the water onto the 40-foot chartered vessel.
It was the third shark attack in the harbour since two others were mauled in the space of 24 hours in September, but a rescue crewman who arrived on the scene at about 7pm described it as “the worst one yet”.
“He’d suffered very serious bites, significant blood loss as well as cardiac arrest and when we arrived he was already being treated by a paramedic from Hamilton Island, two off-duty doctors and an emergency department nurse from other nearby vessels,” RACQ CQ Rescue crewman Ben McCauley said.
In less than 45 minutes, the critically-ill man was resuscitated twice before being brought back to shore, loaded into the waiting helicopter and flown to Mackay Base Hospital.
He was in a critical condition when he arrived at the hospital about 8pm.
Police later confirmed he died in hospital. (source)
