Shark bite victim, ER doctor recall chaotic day off Fire Island

It was the Fourth of July, and Lyudmila Emag, 47, a nurse practitioner from Brooklyn visiting Fire Island, decided with two friends to go for a walk on the beach.

It was around 4 p.m., and they had already been in the water earlier in the day. 

"Fire Island is a fun place to be," Emag recalled Thursday. "We had no plans to go back in the water. We walked for maybe a mile."

Then the ocean beckoned.

"It's the best place. Let's all get in," they thought, Emag said Thursday at a news conference at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, which would play a role in her care when that decision landed her in the hospital's emergency room.

"About 20 yards from the shore, we were swimming and enjoying it when I felt something grab my ... thigh and I screamed, 'Something is biting me!' And I felt like I had to take it off and pushed it off. I didn't know it was a shark," Emag said.

Emag was back at the hospital Thursday to recall the encounter's details with Dr. Nadia Baranchuk, an emergency department physician who was on duty when Emag was brought in.

Emag was one of three reported victims of shark bites off Long Island beaches on July Fourth, authorities said at the time, and among five reported cases over the holiday period.

Her friend Yuliya Chernova, who accompanied her to the hospital Thursday, had been with her at Fire Island Pines and recalled hearing her scream and the mad scramble to swim back to shore. Chernova said the shark encounter occurred in an area between Cherry Grove and Sailors Haven beaches.

"Once we got out to shore and saw the bite — our other friend saw the tail — at that moment it was clear it was a shark bite. That was very shocking to us," Chernova said.

Emag's journey to the hospital involved transport by ATV, police boat, then ambulance.

Baranchuk was the attending physician at the hospital's ER that day. She said she'd never seen a shark bite before July Fourth — but Emag turned out to be her second such victim of the day. The first required surgery to remove a shark tooth from his hand. 

Dr. Sanjey Gupta, chair of emergency medicine at the hospital, said the only other time hospital staff had treated a shark victim was five years ago.

"Yes, it's a little odd," Baranchuk said. But she added the protocol was to treat Emag's injuries like any other animal bite, which involved thoroughly cleaning the wounds, making sure no foreign bodies were inside them, and treatment with an antibiotic. She said Emag had several abrasions and lacerations, and a few puncture wounds across several inches of her left upper thigh. 

Baranchuk described Emag as "super calm" when they brought her into the emergency department on a stretcher. She said Emag didn't ask for pain medication.

Emag said though she felt discomfort at the time, she didn't experience much pain. The doctor said Emag's adrenaline "was still probably pretty high afterwards."

Asked if she had been back in the water after her surreal encounter, Emag said, "Not yet. I'm waiting for the wound to heal," and added that she hoped to go back soon.   

Later Thursday, Hempstead Town officials announced that lifeguards at Nickerson Beach reported a “confirmed shark sighting” and closed swimming to the public for an hour in the afternoon. The town's shark patrol was deployed, and after it was confirmed the shark was gone, swimmers were allowed back into the water.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie