CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Davy Sanada spoke at the Queen's Medical Center yesterday. He thanked the many people who helped save him. Later, Dr. Morris Mitsunaga gave more information on the attack and treatment of Sanada.

A Kaneohe man was like a rag doll
in the mouth of a shark

Davy Sanada may have saved his life by pulling his wet suit over a bleeding shoulder like a tourniquet after an 8-foot tiger shark tore a third to a half of his left shoulder muscle Oct. 9 off Molokai, an orthopedic surgeon said yesterday.

"All the muscles in the back were completely gone." Dr. Morris Mitsunaga On patient and shark bite victim Davy Sanada

Dr. Morris Mitsunaga said the 34-year-old Kaneohe man realized how serious it was when he could see down to the bone.

"He's a brave young man," Mitsunaga said. His actions helped to stop the bleeding, and others packed his wound.

Sanada was free diving about 600 yards offshore outside Kupeke Fishpond just after noon when he was attacked in murky, waist-deep water.

The shark had clamped its bottom teeth over Sanada's chest and its top teeth on his back, then shook him for five seconds like a rag doll, creating a sawing action, Mitsunaga said.

The shark took some of the muscles in his back, he said.

"If it had him a little bit longer, it would probably would have gotten his whole arm," he said.

Sanada received lacerations to his face, which required stitches.

After the initial attack, Sanada was near shore in shallow water when the shark came back and tried to attack him again, but he fended him off with his spear, Mitsunaga said.

Sanada declined comment on the attack before his discharge from the Queen's Medical Center yesterday.

He did, however, thank doctors and medical staff in Honolulu and Maui, fire rescue crews in Molokai, family and friends.

Sanada received a large extensive wound from his chest to his shoulder and down to his back, Mitsunaga said.

Plastic surgeon Vincent Nip removed the dead skin and replaced it with grafted skin from his leg.

His wounds have been closed up and he will undergo extensive rehabilitation.

Doctors will then need to assess what further surgeries he may need to transfer muscles from other areas so he can regain muscle function.

Doctors don't know whether Sanada, a pipe fitter at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, will be able to return to his work, which requires crawling and holding things overhead.

Sanada is also athletic and plays softball and dives, both of which require the use of his shoulder and arm, Mitsunaga said.

Mitsunaga said Sanada's deltoids, which help bring the arm up, and the infraspinatus, which bring the arm out, received extensive damage.

"All the muscles in the back were completely gone," he said.

However, the right-hander retains use of both hands, although his left arm remains in a sling.