Boy Critical After Shark Attack Surgery

P E N S A C O L A, Fla. , July 9 -- An 8-year-old boy who survived a shark attack and had his arm reattached is fighting kidney failure and may have suffered brain damage, his doctors said today.

Jesse Arbogast had his arm bitten off and a gash torn in his thigh as he was swimming in shallow surf in the ocean near Pensacola on Friday.

Dr. Rex Northup at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital told reporters at a press conference today that circulation in the boy's reattached arm and in his severely wounded leg was good, but the main battle isn't going to be over those injuries in particular. He said he was more concerned about secondary damage — how after the attack, many of the boy's organs were denied adequate blood and oxygen.

"Our hope is we don't see deteriorating or worsening," Northrup said. "If we can get another several days behind us where things don't deteriorate, we'll be happy with that."

The boy is in critical but stable condition. He is not able to recognize family members yet and is still on a ventilator, doctors said.

Dr. Ian Rogers, a plastic surgeon at local Baptist Hospital who helped reattach Arbogast's arm, told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America, "after you've been in a period of time of shock like he was, it would not be unusual for the kidneys to go into failure, especially considering the fact that his blood pressure was down for as long as it was and he had to be resuscitated."

Back to Normal in a Few Months

Rogers said he is hopeful the boy can regain near normal use of his arm in 12 to 18 months, with extensive therapy.

"He's got a long road ahead of him," Rogers said. "There's a lot of factors, parameters to be dealt with along the way."

He said all the nerves have been reattached, but "all the muscle function has got to return, the sensation, and the range of motion has got to return."

Luckily though, the arm was in good condition. "Amazingly after looking at the limb, the quality of the limb was absolutely surprising considering the fact that it had been bitten off by a shark," Rogers said. "It was severed rather cleanly."