After near fatal shark attack, this turtle becomes first patient at new Zoo Miami hospital
For some patients, waiting for a hospital’s official opening is simply not enough.
We hate to say the word “lucky” because this poor loggerhead sea turtle apparently was severely bitten by a shark — judging by the striations on its now amputated humerus bone, according to wildlife expert Ron Magill.
But this sweet-faced sea creature, which Magill said is a female, was “lucky” that she met veterinary surgeons with the soon-to-open Zoo Miami Sea Turtle Hospital, and their team performed life-saving surgery on Tuesday.
In an email to the Miami Herald, Magill said Tuesday afternoon that “the patient has been returned to her recovery tank at Zoo Miami’s Sea Turtle Hospital where she will be carefully monitored for the next several weeks until she can hopefully be released back to the ocean.”
Zoo Miami’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Sea Turtle Hospital is scheduled for July 6.
The team hopes the patient — whom they’ve named Baymax — can fully recover by that time. Surgeons tended to a severe wound on her left front flipper that had left only exposed bone and torn flesh.
Zoo Miami learned of the loggerhead turtle’s nasty encounter on May 22, when Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission contacted them after she was rescued from the Port St. Lucie Power Plant.
According to Magill, the new Zoo Miami Sea Turtle Hospital has similar functions in many ways as the renowned Turtle Hospital facility in Marathon in the Florida Keys, which opened its doors in 1986, but also stands alone in Miami-Dade.
“It has different components and is designed to serve as a satellite to the main [Zoo Miami] Animal Hospital, focusing strictly on sea turtles with the ultimate goal of release back to the wild,” he said.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2022 at 4:23 PM.
