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March
25, 2011
UPDATE: Hatteras
waterman hurt in boating
accident will have slow recovery
By IRENE NOLAN
Graham
Harrison, the
20-year-old Hatteras watermen who was injured when a charter boat ran
hard aground near Oregon Inlet on Monday, is home from the hospital,
but his mother says his recovery will be slow.
Vicki
Harrison says Graham “is in pretty bad shape,” but added that his
doctors have told her he is young and strong and should eventually
recover.
Harrison
was filling in as the mate on the charter boat Good Times, out of
Hatteras Harbor Marina, when it hit a shoal so hard that he went flying
and hit his head near his right ear and was knocked unconscious.
He
was flown by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on Monday
and was released Wednesday night, his mother said.
He
has a fractured skull, broken bones in his right ear, no hearing in
that ear, headaches, and had bleeding in his brain that has now
stopped, Vicki Harrison added.
“He’s
in bed,” she said today. He can get up to walk around for five minutes
several times a day and that time will be gradually increased.
Vicki
said Graham will have another MRI next week and will continue to be
monitored by his physicians.
However,
she said, he cannot drive for at least a month, and his doctors have
advised no boating for six months.
Graham,
Vicki said, “has been on the water forever,” and is a member of a
fishing family. He and his father, Robert, fish commercially,
and
his mother and his sister sell the seafood in their shop, Harbor House
Seafood Market, in Hatteras village.
With
Graham not fishing, she said, it will be tough to get the wild caught,
local seafood that is the market’s signature.
But,
she added, other watermen have been by the house to visit and have
promised to help until Graham recovers.
“I’m
just going to put it in the Lord’s hands,” Vicki said.
“But
he will live to fish another day,” she added.
March
22, 2011
Hatteras
charter boat crewman injured in Oregon Inlet accident
By IRENE NOLAN
Graham Harrison, 20, of Hatteras village was in intensive care at
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital today, recovering from a boating
accident yesterday in Walter Slough near Oregon Inlet
.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, Harrison struck his head and was
knocked unconscious when a charter boat ran hard aground in the slough,
which is a narrow channel just outside the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.
Crew aboard the charter vessel Good Times, which usually operates out
of Hatteras Harbor Marina, reported the injury to the Coast Guard at
approximately 6:30 a.m. and requested assistance.
Coast Guard crewmembers launched a skiff from Station Oregon Inlet to
transfer the man in stable condition to waiting emergency medical
services and an ambulance at the station. He was taken to the Outer
Banks Hospital in Nags Head, and then taken by helicopter to The
Norfolk hospital.
Harrison was filling in as a mate on the charter boat yesterday,
according to his mother, Vicki Harrison.
“He hit his head on the right side, just above his ear,” Vicki Harrison
said in a phone interview today.
She said her son suffered a fractured skull, broken bones in his ear,
and some cuts, and has had bleeding in his brain since the accident.
Though he is still in intensive care, he was conscious, aware, and ate
breakfast, Vicki Harrison said.
“He took a really big hit,” she said, “but he is holding his own, and
we are very optimistic.”
The Harrisons are a Hatteras fishing family. Her son, she said, “has
always been on the water.”
Graham and his father, Robert, operate commercial fishing boats, and
Vicki and her daughter, Alana, run Harbor House Seafood Market, where
the family’s catch is sold.
Vicki said she worried about her son fishing out of Oregon Inlet, which
has been shoaling badly, and has been a concern to Outer Banks charter
and commercial watermen and to the Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers.
Robert Harrison was injured when a rogue wave hit his boat some years
back when he was running out of Oregon Inlet, Vicki said.
“I was just telling (Graham) a few days ago that I didn’t want him
fishing up there,” she said.
Three people were injured in January near Walter Slough, which is not
federally maintained. However, the Coast Guard recently provided money
to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its hopper dredge, Currituck,
to clear out the channel.
"This incident highlights the dangers of high speed and shallow water,"
said Cmdr. James Mitchell, Coast Guard Sector North Carolina's head of
the Response Department. "All mariners are urged to arrive alive by
operating at a safe speed, wearing their life jackets, and ensuring
that passengers and crew know how to call the Coast Guard if the need
arises."
The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the grounding.
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