Peter Jennings - Shark Assault: An Amazing Story of Survival

Its a wilderness experience when we enter the sea and we as humans do not have a guarantee when we go there.

George H. Burgess, Director, Florida Program for Shark Research and International Shark Attack File

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, What good is it?

Aldo Leopold (18871948), ecologist and environmentalist

The word I would use to describe Nicole is tenacious: Im going to do it, damn it, Im going to plug through no matter what, just watch me! Thats how she handles her life.

Toni Amadei, Nicoles travel mate on the trip to Cancn

It is rare to see someone experience the trauma of so many surgeries yet be so strong, positive, and full of hope as Nicole Moore. She is an inspiration.

Dr. Laura Snell, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto

Caring can move mountains. Without a sense of care, there is no community.

Nicole Moore

1. Introduction: Can There Be a Greater Fear?
2. Chapter 1: Emergency in Mexico
3. Chapter 2: Theres Moore to Life
4. Chapter 3: The Great Mexicali Adventure
5. Chapter 4: Point of No Return
6. Chapter 5: Shark Attack
7. Chapter 6: From All Angles
8. Chapter 7: Struggle for Survival: Mexico
9. Chapter 8: Adis Cancn!
10. Chapter 9: Struggle for Survival: Canada
11. Chapter 10: A Portrait of Courage
12. Chapter 11: Confronting Reality: Amputation
13. Chapter 12: Restoring Nicole: Trials, Tests, and Tasks
14. Chapter 13: Sharks: Gotta Love Em
15. Chapter 14: And Now, the News
16. Chapter 15: The Lunnie Bin
17. Chapter 16: Life Interrupted: The New Normal
18. Chapter 17: Keep Moving Forward
19. Chapter 18: Inspiration: Theres Moore to a Life Resumed
20. Mooretolife.ca Nicoles Blog
21. Acknowledgements

Can There Be a Greater Fear?

One of the most dreadful torments of the human imagination is fear of a shark attack. Even your worst nightmare cant compare to the reality.

A bull shark.
Jose Angel Astor

Imagine being rendered nearly helpless as a massive, primitive killing machine beats at you, tearing at your flesh with unbelievable savagery. Your skin is ripped open and you hear the cracking of your bones. You are helpless and horrified as your organs are devoured with ease.

Huge, indifferent, razor-edged teeth grown for the sole purpose of hacking away at anything the shark senses is food or foe gnash at your body, leaving you dying in a sea of blood.

For Nicole Moore, a thirty-nine-year-old nurse from Orangeville, Ontario, such a horrifying agony is not just imagined. It is how her life was assaulted.

This is her story.

Emergency in Mexico

She stands on the quiet sands at the Cancn resort, staring out at a calm ocean of turquoise beauty. Her mind darts back to months earlier when events on this same beach changed her life in a way few people would have the courage to confront, let alone survive. Even she wonders how shes pulled through.

The beach is eerily silent. The hush is somewhat overwhelming, a bit sinister.

Is the quiet because its off-season, with fewer people enjoying the posh vacation destination? Or do the few guests know of her circumstances? Perhaps they are keeping their distance, allowing her time and solitude, out of respect.

Soon the camera crew that has followed her out of Toronto to Mexico uninvited will be there to record the compulsion she feels she cannot avoid: facing her fears head on. Nicole Moore is determined to step into the Caribbean Sea at the exact spot where she was attacked months before. She will master the influence that has become the ruler of her existence.

But the silence is undermining her resolve.

A small silver fish suddenly breaks the shallow surface, the unexpected splash causing her neck to jerk back. Off in the distance she hears the muffled howl of a siren. She blinks her eyes, shaking her head to banish the memory of the fateful ambulance ride that only months ago was truly a race against time. That very phrase can be a little over the top, but in the case of Nicole Moore being rushed to Hospiten Cancn on the afternoon of January 31, 2011, nothing could have been closer to the truth. She was as near to death as anyone could be. Minutes seconds mattered.

Her body scarred and deformed, missing her left arm and much of her left leg muscles painful realities she is forced to endure every waking moment Nicole shuts her eyes. Her mind summons up that earth-shattering day where she had to cope with a treacherous ambulance journey, strapped to a backboard that was not well secured, flapping about as the inexperienced driver tackled the mounting bumps in the road, while paramedics struggled to find any blood pressure reading at all. This was the point when Nicole realized she had probably reached the end of her life. She was racing to the hospital less and less as a survivor, more and more as a fatality.

Her memories take over. She is propelled back to feeling the fear in her gut, the helplessness, and especially the frustration of that terrible day. She begins reliving the experience of horror in a surreal manner. Shes back in the ambulance. Shes being hurled about. Shes recognizing that her body has started to shut down peripherally. Shes already lost 60 percent of her blood. Her skin is ashen grey. Circulation has slowed to her legs, arms, and hands, and her organs are shutting down. She fights for each gasp of air; there isnt enough blood left to make her lungs do their job. And she knows that in the fifty minutes since shes been attacked and severely wounded, little anyone has done has seemed to help.

As an experienced nurse, Nicole knows her situation is bad. Really bad. She understands she has mere minutes left in her life. Only her heart and brain are functioning now, and they are down for the count. Once her heart checks out shell have maybe two minutes before brain damage sets in.

And then death.

At home theyd call her condition critical, life threatening.

Still, the young ambulance driver comes through, making it to the hospital, where staff members whisk her inside and plant her on a trauma bed. But nothing will be simple. Already there is a problem: theyve never dealt with this kind of attack before. They seem unsure of what to do. Nicole panics because she fears for her life, while the people around her seem more focused on whether she has adequate insurance coverage. They ramble on in Spanish about her capacity to pay for what they are unsure they will do in the first place.

Where and what is her insurance situation? one administrator asks.