Rick Moore swam through blood to rescue Maui shark-attack victim

Read The Seattle Times

A woman who lost her arm in a Maui shark attack kept repeating that she was going to die, the California high schoolteacher who jumped into the water to save her said.

“As soon as we stand on the beach, we heard this bloodcurdling scream,” said Rick Moore, 57, of Laguna Niguel, Calif. “We look out and there was blood everywhere in the white water around her.”

He put on flippers and swam to her, said Moore, who teaches physical education and health at Creekside High School in Irvine, Calif. “About 10 feet from her, I saw her floating on her back, with no arm,” he said. “It was completely severed from her body.”

The 20-year-old German visitor was snorkeling in 15- to 20-foot-deep water off Palauea Beach in Makena when the shark bit off her arm Wednesday afternoon.