A Second Chance at Life
Eric Nerhus
Off the coast of Cape Howe near Eden on the morning of January 23, 2007, the water was a bit murky, but overall Eric Nerhus's dive to collect abalone had been going swiftly. Then, out of nowhere, he felt a huge force hit him. His respirator was torn from his mouth and everything went dark. It took Eric just moments to realise what had happened. He was inside the mouth of a shark.
Eric grew up in the coastal town of Eden. He always had a fascination with the sea, but didn't become a professional diver until 2000. At the age of 42, he had rarely seen sharks off Cape Howe and when he did, he was always very careful to hop in the boat and move to another area straight away.
This day was different. The shark's bite had engulfed Eric's right arm, head and upper chest. The animal was shaking him back and forth, "trying to bite off the biggest chunk." Eric says the older divers always said that if you ever find yourself in trouble with a shark, "go for the gills or poke 'em in the eye."
Eric felt around the side of the shark 
and found the tennis ball-sized eye. He jammed his fingers in and began to twist them. The shark loosened its jaws and Eric was able to wriggle out partially before the shark bit down again, this time on his head. Eric twisted his fingers a second time and the shark released him. Now he was no longer inside the creature, instead he was face to face with the five-meter-long Great White shark.
Of the sight, Eric says, "You just melt…Humans aren't much when you look at some of the predators we have in nature and when you are in their environment you are even more helpless." Eric placed his regulator back in his mouth and decided to take a gamble and head for the surface, moving nice and slow.
During the ten metre ascent, the shark swam around him in slow graceful circles. The shark circled as far as ten metres away and as close as two. Eric rotated in a slow circle always trying to keep his ungoggled-eyes on the animal and his bag of abalone out in front of him.
When Eric burst through the surface he screamed, "Help! There is a shark! I need help!" Eric's 16-year-old son, Mark, pulled him out of the water and alerted the other divers in the area. The divers took Eric to shore on their faster boat and radioed the ambulance service while speeding back to the shore.
When Eric arrived at the Eden port, the Snowy Hydro SouthCare helicopter was ready for him. The medical crew helped Eric onto the stretcher, removed his lead-lined diving vest and cut off his wet suit to treat his wounds. Without the pressure of the garments, he started bleeding heavily. In a snap, the crew began medical treatment by applying pressure to the wounds and the helicopter was off to the hospital.
Since Eric had been diving, the highly-trained crew knew that he could be in danger of getting the bends if the helicopter flew too high. Instead of 
going to Canberra as they normally would have, they avoided the high altitude of the mountains by travelling up the coast to Wollongong Hospital. Eric says, "They think of anything and everything to help their patients. They thought of the decompression times and thought it is better to be safe than sorry…We are very lucky we have them around. They run an admirable service."
Just three months after his accident, Eric began diving again. "I've been in and on the sea my whole life and I believe this is a rare occurrence… I don't harbour animosity towards Great White sharks because I was almost swallowed by one. I genuinely believe that the shark grabbed me by accident."
With a year of physical recovery behind him, Eric has an enormous appreciation for the second chance he has been given. "I have teenage children and a wife and I appreciate the simpler things a lot more. You sort of have to have a reality check and think gee, I'm really glad I'm here still. It is a good feeling to know you have a second chance… If it didn't happen, you wouldn't believe it."
