Shark Attack Victim’s Aunt Receives Award

Written by Stephanie Kriner, Staff Writer, RedCross.org

May 24, 2002 — The aunt of a boy attacked by a shark last summer will receive the American Red Cross’ highest award for using First Aid and CPR skills to save her nephew’s life.

Diana Flosenzier helped save her nephew's life with skills she learned from the Red Cross. --Photo courtesy of Pensacola News Journal

Diana Flosenzier, who used life-saving skills she learned in Red Cross training to keep her nephew Jesse Arbogast alive on July 6, 2001, will be awarded the American Red Cross Certificate of Merit. It is considered the highest award given by the organization for saving or sustaining life using skills and knowledge learned in its Health and Safety courses.

“I am very honored and surprised,” Flosenzier says of the award. “I just feel so much like I was part of a chain. There were so many other people involved with Jesse’s rescue and treatment…I just got it started and I’m so lucky that I had the ability to do that.”

After Arbogast’s uncle brought his nephew to shore, Flosenzier, assisted by a bystander, another rescuer and a park ranger, began providing CPR that literally kept the child alive until emergency workers arrived on the scene. Meanwhile Jesse’s uncle wrestled the shark ashore. Then, with the help of a park ranger and firefighter, he retrieved Jesse’s arm from inside the shark’s mouth.

Still, the shark attack at a Pensacola, Fla., beach left Jesse without a right arm and a with a severe wound in his right thigh. The massive bleeding put Jesse’s life in grave danger, and heightened Flosenzier’s anxiety over saving him.

She actually doubted that her efforts to rescue Jesse were worthwhile. “You can’t give up,” Flosenzier says. “Even when I was giving Jesse CPR, I didn’t have a lot of hope because so much time elapsed before he got to the hospital.” However, nearly a year later Jesse is recovering a little more each month, Flosenzier says.

Although still in a wheelchair and only able to speak in short sentences, Jesse can read and doctors have ensured the family that he will make a strong recovery, Flosenzier says.

The merit certificate that Flosenzier is receiving bears the signatures of President Bush (honorary chairman of the American Red Cross) and David McLaughlin, chairman.

”She saved a life…It reinforces why people should take this class,” said Sandi Chance, the Red Cross CPR instructor who had Flosenzier as her student. A special award presentation and reception to honor Flosenzier was scheduled for Friday, May 24, at the Mobile, Ala., Chamber of Commerce.

Susanne Werton, a bystander who helped Flosenzier rescue Arbogast, also received the Red Certificate of Merit for using life-saving skills she learned from the St. Louis Area Chapter.

Werton had taken Red Cross CPR and First Aid classes just a few months prior to the incident. "I think everyone should receive CPR training," she said."According to doctors who worked on Jessie, starting CPR as soon as we did is what made a difference between life and death."

Werton, a resident of Fenton, Mo., was honored on March 21.

Related articles:

• CPR Helps Save Young Shark Attack Victim