Photos: Gofundme
Just a few days into 2026, a 27-year-old surfer named Andre de Ruyter was attacked by a shark off the coast of New South Wales, Australia. Were it not for the help of a few strangers, it very likely would have been his last day on Earth. Now, a few months after his life was saved and his leg was lost, the people closest to him and his rescuers are speaking out about how he survived.
The attack, which occurred at just after 6 p.m. on the evening of January 19, was shocking to see. Andre paddled out alone and sat near two other surfers, Ash Bowler and Eduardo Botti. They exchanged polite hellos, but moments after Andre paddled out, he was hit by a shark. At first, Bowler believed it was some awful prank.
“We gave him a smile and a wave,” Ash remembered. “He was jovial, you know? He was pumped to be out there. It was almost like a ‘yew’ moment. He sort of paused to catch his breath and then the shouting started,” Ash continued. “He’s just going, ‘Shark! Shark! Shark!’ and bouncing up and down. I looked over and it was so animated I thought it was just a terrible joke.”
It soon became clear that it was not a joke. Bowler and Botti could see the shark’s tail as it thrashed around Andre. Instead of paddling away from the melee, they paddled towards it.
“This thing was big,” Ash said. “It put the fear into me. Just seeing the way it shook him around… I was expecting him to just go ‘thunk,’ straight down. It had total control of him… In that first moment, my first instinct was to move away because I just assessed like, ‘Woah, I can’t do anything to help with that. It’s just too big. And then there’s blood, and you get the first look at his leg… it was out of a horror movie. You do sort of go for a moment, ‘What am I risking here?’ But then when the guy says again ‘Help, help,’ it just takes over and you do what you’ve got to do.”
They managed to get Andre, who was bleeding profusely, back to the beach. Bystanders, along with an off-duty lifeguard who hadn’t left for the day yet, pulled a tourniquet tightly around what was left of his leg, and did what they could until paramedics arrived. According to 10 News, he was “clinically dead” on the sand.
As luck would have it, a jogger who happened to be running by at the time was also a doctor. “Not just any jogger,” says the 10 News host in the segment you see here. “He was second-in-charge at the trauma unit of the Royal North Shore Hospital.”
Dr. Brian Burns has seen his fair share of life-threatening injuries, but even he was shocked at the extent of what he saw on the beach that day.
“I could see a young man who was clearly in cardiac arrest,” he remembered. “He had a tourniquet on his leg and an obvious shark bite and no blood on the beach. So he clearly had bled out into the ocean.”
Dr Burns, with the help of the lifeguards on the scene, worked tirelessly to give Andre a chance at survival. A helicopter dropped off blood and plasma on the beach.
“He essentially got 13 units of blood,” Dr Burns continued, “which is at least his volume of blood.”
Once in the ambulance, the paramedics realized they’d need even more blood, so they radioed ahead and had a police cruiser meet them midway to get more for them.
“To hear that his heart stopped… that’s a pretty scary thing to hear,” said Andre’s mother. “Thank God he’s alive.”
When he got to the hospital, Andre was still hanging on by a thread. Surgeons got to work. Unfortunately, his leg was gone, but the fact that he survived at all was a miracle.
“We’re incredibly grateful to say that Andre is a shark attack survivor,” his family wrote on a GoFundMe. “An amazing team was able to save Andre’s life a few weeks ago at Manly beach, and get him to the hospital. Andre has just moved off life support, and the doctors are seeing more positive signs towards his recovery, however they say we have a long journey ahead.”
His family never left his side while he began his recovery, singing songs to him, holding his hands, and telling him he was safe. Now, months later, Andre is well and truly on the road to recovery.
“It’s time for more good news!” his family wrote in a crowdfunding update on April 28. “Andre is finally being discharged from the hospital. Thanks to your generous donations, and the fundraiser nights at Resin Brewing and 7th Day Brewery, we have been able to rent a wheelchair accessible airBnB next to the best rehabilitation facilities… The community’s support and funding we’ve received so far have been so generous and compassionate. Thank you so much for all the help, you have provided huge relief and benefits to Andre whilst stuck in hospital.”
