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BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) – Eugene Finney was left with cuts and bruises after a horrifying ocean encounter, but it’s what doctors found in hospital that could have killed him.
Finney, a man from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, recently visited his parents in Huntington Beach, California with his two kids and girlfriend.
When the family went for a swim of the beach, they reportedly experienced a shark attack.
"Something struck me from behind. I'd never been hit like that before. It was pretty jarring. It kind of gave me an instant whiplash," Finney was quoted as saying.
After Finney managed to struggle back to shore, his daughter discovered his back is bleeding. Finney was left with a foot-long gash down his upper back.
Both his girlfriend and son said they saw fins in the area where he had been struck.
Two days after Finney was struck, a surfer was bumped by a juvenile great white shark in the same area where Finney had been swimming. That incident led to the closure of Huntington Beach.
Despite a long gash on his back, Eugene decided it wasn’t worth a hospital trip. After Finney returned to work in Massachusetts, he had trouble sleeping and was experiencing pain in his chest. Then he decided to go to see a doctor.
Doctor told him the pain was caused by interior bruising of the thoracic cavity due to blunt force trauma.
It's cancer.
Doctors operated on it and the surgery was a success.
"If this didn't happen with the shark, causing me to go in [to hospital] with this chest pain, I would have never known about this cancer,” Finney said.
Finney is still recovering from the surgery but he's thankful for the love and support of his girlfriend and the incredible care he received at the hospital.
"If it wasn't for their love and support, I don't know what would have happened," Finney said.
(Agencies)
