On paper, Cameron Wrathall reads as the Person Most Likely to Survive a Shark Attack. In and out of the water most of his life, both for recreation and professionally — including a stint as Pool Manager at Gingin Aquatic Centre — he was well versed in water safety. Add to this paramedic first aid training as a mine site emergency response officer, you think you have got the bases covered.
On 14 January 2021 Cameron was swimming near Blackwall Reach in Bicton when he was attacked by a 3-metre bull shark. When asked how much of that training kicked in at that moment, Cameron says, “Absolutely none of it – you don’t have time to think, it was all instinctive reactions.”
Cameron describes the moment of impact as like being hit by a freight train. It grabbed him around the buttock and upper thigh, tearing through flesh until it hit bone. Cameron says, “I could feel the pressure, but I didn’t feel pain. I knew instinctively and immediately what was happening. I also knew that I was vastly overpowered.”
Cameron went limp in the shark’s jaws, then twisted his torso toward the shark before fighting back. “People say if a shark grabs hold of you, it’s good to poke it in the eye or hit it in the nose…all I thought was, if I don’t get this off me, it will kill me.”
“It was right on top of me. I tried to kick at it with the leg that was free, thrust down with both my hands as hard as I could into the top of its head, hitting it with the heels of my palm. There was no thought of, ‘I’m going to hit here or there, or try this’.
“I hit it and it let go.”
Cameron was swimming with his friend Richard who had noticed the tail of the shark breaking the river’s surface, but – as the attack happened so quickly – turned back only to see his friend in a cloud of blood, shouting, “Shark!”
“I knew I had to get to shore before I drowned,” says Cameron. “Richard said, ‘Do you want to hang on to my shoulders and I’ll swim in?’
“But I know I’m a stronger swimmer than him, so I sort of chuckled and took off, swimming as hard as I could about 100 m towards the nearest beach. I beat him in,” laughs Cameron.
Richard pulled Cameron further up the shore and called for help. Two kayakers plus a paddleboarder heard his pleas and came over, one of them forming a tourniquet with his shirt before loading Cameron onto their paddle board and taking him to a more accessible area to wait for the ambulance. By this stage, Cameron was drifting in and out of consciousness, his senses diminishing. He clearly remembers the contrast between the concerned people around him and the peace he was feeling; finally giving into unconsciousness once the ambulance arrived.
What followed for Cameron was three days in the intensive care unit and a total of ten weeks in hospital repairing and rehabilitating an extensive injury list – including a fractured femur at the top of the hip and ruptured sciatic nerve. Incredibly grateful to the surgeon’s who saved his leg, Cameron then had the challenge of adjusting to his post-attack body.
“There’s the obvious mobility issues — I use a crutch and have a brace, but I also don’t have any feeling in my foot, so it is a high risk for injury.
“And then there’s pain management – the pain is pretty constant and it varies – nerve pain, bone damage pain.”
Cameron is now sharing his unique experience — he refrains from being called a motivational speaker — but hopes that his story will have a beneficial impact, reinforcing the importance of having a positive mindset, setting goals, overcoming obstacles and, “Accepting things as they are,” he says. “Not getting caught up by expectations or thinking about how things should be rather than how they are.”
“You know, one thing that people will often say to you is everything happens for a reason. That’s a funny statement, and I had to think about that one a little bit. And the conclusion I came to is that yes, everything does happen for a reason. But the way that works is to do with choices — whatever choices you make will potentially lead to certain outcomes, and then you must accept the consequences of that happening, if it does.”
If you would like to hear more about Cameron’s story, he will be presenting a talk at Gingin Aquatic Centre on Saturday 17 February, 7 pm. Entry is by gold coin donation, raising funds for the Gingin Super Seals, with a sausage sizzle provided.
