Shark attack boy opens eyes

An eight-year-old boy who is in a coma after surgery to re-attach his arm which was bitten off by a shark has opened his eyes.

Jessie Arbogast is still in a coma-like state but doctors say he is showing "very promising" signs of recovery.

Jessie, who was threatened with brain damage after losing most of his blood during the attack, is in a critical but stable condition at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital in Pensacola, Florida.

Dr Juliet De Campos, the orthopedic surgeon who helped reattach the arm, said: "Technically, he's unconscious because he's not conversing like you and I are conversing but he is showing very promising signs of starting to arouse somewhat.

"I moved his right arm, the one that was replanted. It was next to his body and I moved it away from his body to let his armpit breathe a little bit and he immediately moved it back down."

Dr De Campos said another doctor who examined Jessie earlier Wednesday reported that Jessie responded when the physician rubbed the boy's chest and called out his name.

She said: "Jessie opened his eyes and Jessie looked at him, and he also moved his right foot and his left arm."

Jessie was attacked by a 7ft bull shark while he was wading in knee-deep water on a Florida Panhandle beach on Friday.

His uncle and another beachgoer wrestled the shark to shore, where a ranger shot it and prised its jaw open while a firefighter pulled the arm out of its gullet.

Jessie also suffered a severe leg wound. The lose of nearly all his blood harmed virtually every organ in his body.