Paul de Gelder was attacked by a shark on a dive (Image: Paul de Gelder/Cover Images)
A former Australian Navy diver was conducting a standard training drill when his life was abruptly put in peril following an unexpected shark attack.
Paul de Gelder’s remarkable survival hinged on his military composure and determination not to be dragged to his demise by the predator in Sydney Harbour, Australia.
The Melbourne-born man compared the pain of the assault to having two rows of 36 razor blades on each side of his leg and wrist, slicing through his skin.
Despite surviving the ordeal, Paul lost a hand and a leg in the brutal eight-second bull shark attack in February 2009. He remembered: « The shark grabbed me by my right hand and the back of my right leg in the same bite. »
The bull shark – ranked third deadliest in the world – then yanked him underwater and started to violently shake him. « I tried to fight it off, but it had my hand, so I couldn’t do anything with it, » he explained.
The shark ripped his hand and leg off (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
As a schoolboy, he’d been instructed to strike a shark in the eye if he ever found himself under attack.
He stated: « My left hand couldn’t reach the shark’s eye, and when I tried to punch it in the nose, it started shaking me. The pain was just so all-encompassing that the fight just went out of me.
« I was a rag doll in this monster’s mouth whilst getting thrashed around underwater. I was in total agony and drowning at the same time. »
At the age of 31, Paul attempted to poke the killer in the eye as well as punching and shoving it – anything to prevent it from consuming him like an easy meal, reports the Mirror.
Paul de Gelder went straight back into Navy training (Image: Getty Images)
« From going to jab him in the eyeball with my hand, to working out that my hand was in his mouth as well, to trying to go for the eyeball with my other hand, pushing it, punching it, then going under water, coming up, and going back down, » he said.
Following what seemed like forever, the diver finally broke free and managed to swim towards his safety vessel. Fortunately, he recalled his medical training and did everything possible to stem the bleeding from his hand by keeping it elevated.
He said: « At that point, I had no clue that my whole hamstring was gone and that I had an arterial bleed from my leg. »
A doctor told him that his survival was down to one of the Navy team members, who stopped the blood loss by pinching the artery closed in his leg.
« I popped to the surface. That’s when I realised I had survived this nightmare encounter. I started to swim back to my safety boat, and I took a stroke with my right arm, only to realise my hand wasn’t there. My arm ended at the end of my wetsuit, » he said.
Paul confessed that before the incident, whilst working as a diver neutralising underwater explosives, he lived in perpetual fear of encountering a shark. Yet following the attack, his terror has disappeared entirely.
Paul de Gelder says he’s no longer afraid of sharks (Image: Getty Images)
He explained: « I was petrified of them before, and now for some reason, I’m just not. I don’t know. Been there, done that. »
Paul, who now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, spent nine weeks in hospital and astonishingly returned to military training just six months afterwards. Since 2012, he has been an inspirational speaker, advocating for the crucial ecological significance of these creatures.
« Before the shark attack, I thought killing sharks was a great idea, but now I love them, and I don’t get to swim with them as much as I would like to, » he said.
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