The Turtle Hospital

(Hidden Harbor Marine Environmental Project, Inc.)
Marathon, Florida

We have approx 20-30 current turtles at any given time that are at some stage of Rehabilation. These are just a few of our current residents as of November 2005.

Twizzler

Twizzler is a juvenile Hawksbill sea turtle that was found floating amongst sargassam weeds and a plastic burlap like sac in August of 2005. The threads of the bag became entangled around Twizzler's front flipper. The circulation of the flipper was decreased, not allowing any blood flow. The flipper was amputated. Twizzler is now learning how to swim with three flippers prior to his release.

Seymour

Seymore, a juvenile Green Sea Turtle, with severe Fibropapilloma has had successful surgery to remove the growth from one of his eyes. Unfortunately, the fibropapilloma had damaged the cornea of his right eye leaving no other option but to remove the eye completely. Turtles with one eye can be returned to the wild. Seymore will still be able to find his grass beds for feeding.

UPDATE: Seymore required one more surgery for Fibropapilloma due to re-growth to his rear flipper and eye.

Bender

Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle rescued February 17, 2005 from Upper Matecumbe Key, Florida. Bender has an old boat injury and/or possible shark attack to his left side of his shell. His left front flipper has an old injury as well. Bender may require surgery to amputate the left front flipper.

UPDATE: Bender does require his left front flipper to be amputated. Dr. Doug Mader will perform the surgery. Bender will require about 3-6 months to learn how to swim with only three flippers. Once he is comfortable and compensates for the loss he will be returned to the wild.

UPDATE: Dr. Stephen Anderson amputated Bender's front left flipper on May 04, 2005. The amputation site is healing well and Bender is learning how to swim with only three flippers. Bender continues to have problems with his floatation which maybe due to the severity of the injury sustained to his carapace or shell area.

Green Card

This turtle was rescued from a shrimp net by border patrol between North Key Largo and the Florida Mainland on October 10, 2004. Green card had numerous fibropapilloma growths and has received two surgeries to remove the papillomas. She will now stay at the hospital for a year to make sure no re-growth occurs.

Randy Rudy

Randy Rudy- a Hawksbill Sea Turtle, was rescued and brought to the Hospital after a shark attack on May 16, 2004. An emergency response boat picked him up during the Marathon Grand Prix Offshore Boat races. Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, from "Emergency Vets" on the Animal Planet television series was also in Marathon. He was a guest speaker for a seminar for Veterinarian Techs and Assistants. Randy Rudy and Dr. Fitzgerald met in the hospital and both benefited from the experience. Randy Rudy has recuperated from the front right flipper amputation and Dr. Fitzgerald was quoted as saying that this unique opportunity to operate on Randy Rudy is "one of the greatest honors of my life", to help an endangered sea turtle.

UPDATE: Continues to be monitored closely as the left front flipper is still healing from the shark attack. RR continues to float and does not use his rear flippers. MRI studies will help determine whether RR will fully recovery or not from his shark attack.

Stately

A hybrid between a Loggerhead and a Hawksbill sea turtle. Stately was brought to the hospital on March 07, 2003 with a large amount of fibropapilloma. We have since learned that all so called Hawksbills with fibropapilloma are actually hybrids. This is based on blood studies by Dr. Annie Meylan. Stately has had all of his laser surgery to remove the growths and is now awaiting his one year stay post surgery to ensure that no regrowth occurs.

UPDATE: As of August 31, 2004: Stately had regrown fibropapilloma on his shoulders. He required surgery again to remove the tumors. He will now start his one year post surgery prior to release again.

UPDATE: One more surgery was needed to remove growth from Stately's right eye on June 13, 2005. The growth was sent out to a pathologist to determine whether the growth was scar tissue or more fibropapilloma. The report has come back negative for Fibropapilloma and we are crossing our flippers that Stately will be ready to be released in August 2005.

UPDATE: Stately required surgery on her front right shoulder on August 09, 2005. Tissue samples will be sent out for a pathology report to determine if tissue is fibropapilloma or scar tissue. If tissue is positive for fibropapilloma Stately will be required to stay one more year at the hospital for observation.

UPDATE: Pathology report for Stately determined that the area of concern was positive for Fibropapilloma. Therefore, he will be staying with us for one more year.

Meet our permanent residents

Turtles we've release back to the oceans