And it continued to get worse on his return home to Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
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Eugene Finney was swimming off the California coast at Huntington Beach during a family vacation with his two kids and girlfriend in July 2015. “It kind of gave me an instant whiplash”, he told the TV station.
Reflecting on the experience, Finney spoke to local news sources and said: “If this didn’t happen with the shark, causing me to go in with this chest pain, I would have never known about this cancer”.
The reality of the situation hit him as he washed blood from his back at the beach shower, and his girlfriend, Emeline McKeown, saw fins in the water and lifeguards ordering everyone to leave the water. The next day, a professional surfer was attacked by a great white shark and the beach was closed.
Despite suffering a long gash to his back, Finney decided that it was not worth a hospital trip.
A man has said his life was saved by a shark attack when it revealed he had a cancerous tumour. “The shark was a real message to me”. Later on, however, he felt strong pain in his chest that ultimately prompted him to get checked out by a doctor. He went to the emergency room, and finally was given a diagnosis.
Medics told him the pain was the result of blunt force trauma – from the shark attack – but they also discovered a tumour the size of a walnut on his right kidney.
But what he heard next changed his life forever.
Doctors removed his tumor two weeks later.
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Mr Finney is now cancer-free, and will not require chemotherapy or radiation treatment. “That’s pretty fascinating when you think about it”, said Dr. Tuerk. “And I’m not going to blow it”.
