Man bitten by shark, bear, and snake, and still alive

News24xx.com - What happened to Dylan McWilliams, 20 year-old, probably has a chance to happen like one in a billion. He was bitten by a tiger shark, a black bear, and a rattlesnake, all in the span of three years, and lives through it.

The latest attack happened last week when McWilliams was body boarding at the island of Kauai, Hawaii. It was then that he was attacked by a tiger shark. “I saw the shark underneath me. I started kicking at it—I know I hit it at least once—and swam to shore as quickly as I could” he said, as cited from National Geographic. The wound he got on his leg needed seven stitches.

George Burges, director emeritus of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida, said that while shark attacks do happen occasionally in Hawaii, the possibility of it happening in US waters is one in 11.5 million. You are more likely to be attacked by a bear, which has the likelihood of 1 in 2.1 million.

Again, McWilliams beat this possibility when he went camping at Colorado, last July.  An American black bear bit his head when he was sleeping, but he was able to escape by poking the bear in its eyes. It took nine staples to close the wound at the back of his head. The park authorities caught the bear and put it down.

Outdoor writer who wrote The Book of Deadly Animals, Gordon Grice said that attacks by North American black bear usually happened because it was hungry. This was because the bears have learned to associate humans with their food after eating from the trash cans or pet dishes. Such attacks were very rare with only 14 people killed by bears between 1900 and 2009. You are more likely to be bitten by venomous snake in US, which has the possibility of 1 in 37 thousands.

Considering his luck, it was not shocking that McWilliams had also survived after being bitten by a venomous snake. He was hiking in Utah in 2015 when he was attacked by a rattle snake, but because the venom that was injected to his body was not much, he decided not to go to the hospital. While he was not dead, he did get sick for a few days.

If we multiply all the odds of being attacked by shark, bear and snake, then what happened to McWilliams will be around 1 in 893.35 quadrillion. “He’s one of the unluckiest guys on the planet” Burgess said.

However, even after all the attacks done by these wild animals, McWilliams still enjoyed going out door and he said that his bad luck happened just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. “I still go hiking, I still catch rattlesnakes, and I will still swim in the ocean” he said.

 

 

 

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