Shark Attack Forces Man to Go to Hospital. Unexpected Discovery Doctors Make Leaves Him Thankful for Attack

A Massachusetts man is crediting a shark attack for saving his life after doctors discovered a cancerous tumor as a result of his trip to the hospital.

"The shark was a real message to me," Eugene Finney told WBZ-TV.

Finney was on vacation in California swimming near Huntington Beach when he felt something make contact with him from behind.

“Something struck me from behind. I’d never been hit like that before. It was pretty jarring. It kind of gave me an instant whiplash,” he said, later learning he had been hit by a shark.

Photo credit: Eugene Finney via WBZ-TV

As he got out of the water, his family noticed blood trickling down his back.

"That’s when my daughter said to me, Daddy, how come your back is all bloody?” he explained.

"That night I started having pretty serious chest and back pains,” he added.

When Finney returned home, he went to St. Elizabeth's Medical Center near Boston.

“The pain was caused by interior bruising of the thoracic cavity due to blunt force trauma,” he told WBZ.

Doctors, however, also made another find: Finny had cancer.

“They had discovered a growth, or a tumor, on my right kidney about the size of a walnut,” he said.

Late last month, Finney underwent surgery and had the cancerous growth removed. He now credits the shark for saving his life.

“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,” Finney told WBZ.

His doctor agreed.

“It lead to a situation that saved his life. That’s pretty fascinating when you think about it,” Dr. Ingolf Tuerk told WBZ.

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