Diver says whale's tail broke his leg

A 50-year-old man said his femur broke "like a twig" when a humpback whale whipped her tail during an excursion in the Dominican Republic. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Randy Thornton said at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Sandy.

Thornton said he was in shallow reefs called the Silver Banks, an area where divers are allowed to swim with humpback whales, on March 1.

The whales "slow down and let you catch up with them," said Thornton, the owner of a dive shop, Dive Addicts, in Draper.

But there was nothing playful about a mother who had a calf on her back.

"The calf woke up and got spooked and that startled the mother, who swished her big tail twice," Thornton said.

He was hit and his femur broke "like a twig."

Thornton's diving buddies made a splint out of fins and a weight belt. He said he had a nine-hour ride to shore, followed by surgery in a "prehistoric" hospital, where doctors used a sledgehammer and other tools to insert a steel rod.

"That's where the real adventure began," Thornton said.

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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com