A teenage girl is in serious but stable condition after being bitten by a large shark while scalloping near Keaton Beach on Florida’s Gulf Coast Thursday.
Die Taylor County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) confirmed in a statement on social media a juvenile “had sustained a shark bite while scalloping near Grassy Island in water approximately five feet deep.”
Though the type of shark has not been determined, TCSO said it was about nine feet long.
“A family member reportedly jumped in the water and beat the shark until the juvenile was free,” TCSO said.
According to a Facebook post from the teenager’s father, the girl was bitten twice and tried “poking it in the eyes and punching it,” but the shark would not loosen its grip.
The girl’s brother, a firefighter, was with her and fought off the shark, pulled her away and got her into a nearby boat. The brother also put a tourniquet on her leg and made sure she stayed awake while she was taken back to Keaton Beach, “ultimately saving her life,” the father said.
The girl was flown to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and underwent emergency surgeries, her dad wrote.
She has sustained “an unreal amount of damage” to her thigh and “the nerve on the back of the thigh was damaged severely,” hy het gesê.
“The doctors are unsure at this point as to the condition of the leg and want to take it day by day to see what will have to be done,” hy het bygevoeg.
The girl woke up and was able to communicate with her family by typing on her phone, her dad said, toevoeging “she was in good spirits and cracking jokes about beating up the shark.”
“The first thing she asked for was a Wendy’s frosty,” hy het gesê. “She’s been through more than I could ever imagine but she is being a trooper. Please pray for her and the difficulty of her days ahead. She isn’t out of the woods by any stretch, but she is alive and that’s what’s most important to us.”
