Man bitten by shark medicates with a Mojito

A London businessman who was bitten by a shark while snorkelling off the Galapagos Islands self-medicated with Tequila shots and a Mojito during his three-hour boat ride to hospital.

Fangs a lot: Andrew Newman was attacked by the shark while snorkelling off the Galapagos Islands

As reported by the Evening Standard, 45-year-old Andrew Newman was swimming towards a sea lion on a rock when the shark sunk his teeth into his right foot.

“His white eyes were no more than a metre away from me. We were just staring at each other with my whole foot in his mouth,” Newman told the newspaper.

Ad man Andrew Newman eased the pain from his shark attack with Tequila shots and a Mojito

Switching to ‘fight or flight’ mode, Newman reportedly punched the shark repeatedly until the creature loosened its vice-like grip around his foot.

Traveller Audrey Lag came to the Dulwich-based ad man’s rescue, pushing him up to safety onto nearby rocks. Despite the gravity of the injury, Newman didn’t feel any pain at first.

“Half of my foot looked like it was hanging off. I saw my bones and tendons and could see the blood pumping,” Newman told the Standard.

The pain started kicking in during the three-hour boat journey to the nearest hospital on the island of San Cristobal.

“It was the longest three hours of my life,” Newman said. He eased the pain with a cocktail of painkillers, Tequila shots and a Mojito.

When he arrived at the hospital he was rushed into surgery to re-attach three ligaments in his broken right foot.

Newman had travelled to the Galapagos Island to reignite his passion for life again after the sudden death of his husband in 2016.

“What I ultimately found was how precious my life is and how happy I am to be alive,” Newman told the Standard.