Under normal circumstances, that would not sound far.
Dragging a severely injured adult through moving ocean water is completely different.
Rocha later estimated that he pulled Medici approximately 35 to 40 yards.
By the time he reached shore, he was exhausted.
And Medici was losing blood rapidly.
The Shark Had Bitten Both Legs
Once Medici reached land, the scale of the emergency became clearer.
The shark had inflicted severe injuries to both legs.
Massive bleeding after a shark bite can kill long before any other complication develops. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy notes that white-shark bites can produce major hemorrhage and emphasizes immediate bleeding control as a critical element of first aid.
Rocha improvised.
He used a boogie-board strap and tied it around Medici's thigh in an attempt to slow the bleeding.
Other people converged on them.
Beachgoers helped.
First responders arrived.
CPR was performed.
Cape Cod National Seashore ranger Meghan Farrell later described encountering a large group of bystanders and rescuers carrying Medici on a backboard along the beach.
The emergency calls reveal how chaotic those minutes were.
Cell service at the beach was reportedly unreliable, complicating attempts to communicate exactly what had happened and where assistance was needed. Calls began reaching emergency dispatch shortly after noon.
Medici was eventually placed in an ambulance.
He was transported to Cape Cod Hospital.
Doctors could not save him.
He was pronounced dead.
Arthur Medici was 26.
Massachusetts Had Not Seen This in More Than 80 Years
Fatal shark attacks are rare.
Fatal shark attacks in Massachusetts were extraordinarily rare.
Before Medici's death, the state's previous recorded fatal shark attack had occurred in 1936.
More than eight decades had passed.
That statistic helps explain the shock that spread across Cape Cod.
People knew white sharks existed there.
Sightings had increased.
Warnings were posted.
Researchers were studying them.
But an entire generation had grown up, lived and aged without Massachusetts experiencing another recorded fatal attack.
Then, in 2018, the pattern changed.
And there had already been a warning.
Exactly one month before Medici was killed, a 61-year-old man had survived a shark attack off Truro.
Now another person had been bitten.
This time the victim was dead.
Suddenly the discussion around Cape Cod's sharks was no longer theoretical.
Why Were Great White Sharks Around Cape Cod?
The presence of white sharks around Cape Cod is closely connected to one of their important prey sources:
seals.
White sharks are apex predators, and the inshore waters around parts of Cape Cod provide feeding habitat where sharks can hunt seals surprisingly close to beaches.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy explicitly warns that white sharks hunt and feed on seals in shallow waters near Cape Cod's shoreline.
That creates an unavoidable overlap.
Sharks use the same coastal zone where humans swim, surf, paddle and bodyboard.
This does not mean white sharks are deliberately coming to Cape Cod to hunt people.
The Conservancy stresses that humans are not normal prey for white sharks and that shark bites on humans remain rare. Researchers consider several possible explanations for bites, including mistaken identity, investigation or defensive reactions.
But rarity does not mean impossibility.
And a large white shark does not need to intentionally hunt a human for the consequences of a bite to become fatal.
The animal's size, speed and teeth can turn a brief encounter into catastrophic trauma.
That appears to be what happened at Newcomb Hollow.
The “Boiling Water” Was the Only Warning
This is perhaps the most frightening element of Medici's case.
When people imagine a great white shark attack, they often imagine seeing the shark first.