Despite losing her leg, a teenage girl who was mauled by a shark off the coast of Florida before being saved by her brother has determined to get back into the water.
After a three-hour amputation this morning, Addison Bethea declared she would rush back to the sea as soon as her horrible wounds had healed.
Prior to the procedure, the 17-year-old confessed to DailyMail.com that she intended to get a prosthetic leg fitted in the coming months.
In the meantime, her father Shane, 46, praised her “hero” brother Rhett and threatened that the family would “be at the funeral home” if he had not been present.
Taylor County resident Addison was savagely bitten by the shark on Thursday while scalloping off the coast of Keaton Beach, close to Grassy Island.
The 9-foot beast tore open her right leg, but as 22-year-old EMT Rhett sprinted over to her and pounded the beast off her thigh, it was forced to let go.
Despite the trauma, Addison vowed to return to the ocean as soon as her leg was healed.
“Even though there may be so much that is unknown, you just have to battle through the unexpected.”
Around 8 am, she was carried into surgery where Tallahassee Memorial Hospital medical professionals planned to amputate her leg above the knee.
Her father Shane, who has been by her side ever since the attack, described his daughter as a “soldier” and claimed she was “very sedated.”
After the procedure, Addison will be sent to an inpatient rehabilitation center where she can continue to heal. The objective is for her to get a prosthetic leg, he stated.
He mentioned that one of the difficulties is “to prevent infection,” but he is convinced that his daughter is receiving the best possible medical treatment.
The medical staff here has been exceptional. Every step has been painstakingly and completely explained.
“We would have been in the funeral home instead of the hospital if Rhett hadn’t been there.” That much is certain,’ he remarked. “That youngster is the definition of a hero,” he continued.
In about 5 feet of water on Thursday, Addison and her half-brother Rhett Willingham went scalloping.
She described how she attempted to punch it in the nose—which she had learned was the best method to scare it away on television—but was unable to do so.
Rhett had just touched me when something grabbed hold of my leg. I immediately thought, “That’s not Rhett.” Addison told WTXL, “I look, and there’s this big old shark.
I knew from seeing Animal Planet that you were supposed to smack them in the nose or something, but given the way he bit me, I was unable to do so.
Shane claimed that she was swimming in the sea while on Rhett’s boat approximately a mile and a half offshore when she felt something hit her in the back of the leg.
He added that until a 9-foot shark bit into Addison’s thigh and she screamed and there was blood all everywhere, she believed her brother was just having fun.
Her brother began pounding relentlessly on the shark in an effort to free his sister while his daughter struggled to remove the shark from her leg.
He seized her after she was liberated and brought her over to his boat. A random stranger saw the couple’s plight.
After putting his sister on the stranger’s boat, Rhett attempted to stop the bleeding by wrapping a 4-foot tourniquet around her right upper thigh.
The shark really grabbed her, Shane claimed. She “was exceedingly pale and on the verge of shock.”
When they returned to land, Rhett called for an ambulance, and she was flown to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.
Doctors attempted to remove Addison’s leg from her hip before rushing her into emergency surgery.
However, there was a lot of ambiguity due to the way the shark damaged her thigh, and she has now lost it above the knee.
The front quad muscle of her right leg was bitten by the shark. It was totally destroyed. It was terrible, a really bad wound,’ Shane added.
The vein from the left leg was converted into an artery so that blood could flow to the right leg by the vascular surgeon.
Although the shark’s initial bite on her lower leg wasn’t too bad, he claimed that the second bite was when all of the damage was done.
The shark was flailing around after latching onto her leg. When they attack, they grab meat and rip it off,’ the speaker continued.
He claimed that his daughter, who was intubated and sedated in the hospital, was unaware of the extent of the shark’s injuries.
According to Shane, the doctors were working to preserve enough tissue from her lower leg so that prosthesis could be fitted.
Above the knee, or in the worst instance, by the hip, he continued.
We gave Addison our cell phone after she scribbled on it that she wanted a “Frosty from Wendy’s” even though he claimed she was intubated and unable to communicate when he awoke.
He claimed that when he revealed what had happened to his daughter—a cheerleader, tennis player, and high school senior—she was upbeat but occasionally had intense sadness.
To cheer her up, many of her friends visited her in the intensive care unit. The number one, he continued, is that my daughter is still alive!
“Swimmers and scallopers are advised to remain cautious, vigilant, and practice shark safety,” the sheriff’s office stated.
One important regulation that beachgoers must abide by is to never swim by themselves. To avoid swimming in the waters near fishing docks and sandbars, where sharks frequently gather.
Additionally, it’s advisable for swimmers to stay away from huge schools of fish and to keep their movements in the water controlled.
At Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove, California, which is north of the city of Monterey, a 62-year-old man “severe injuries to his stomach and leg” on June 22.
The shark attacked the guy, who has been named as Steve Bruemmer, at 11 am.
He was taken urgently to Natividad Medical Center, where it was discovered that neither his arteries nor his internal organs had been harmed.
A triathlete named Bruemmer told NBC Bay News that he has been swimming in the bay for the past ten years, at least twice per week.
The swimmer was screaming for help when a nurse, a police officer, and a surfer who was leading a safety class on the beach who were paddle boarding nearby heard him. They all raced to his aid.
Bruemmer acknowledged his gratitude for the good samaritans’ life-saving deeds and conveyed his gratitude for having survived.
A day after the attack, Bruemmer remarked in a hospital statement: “The shark bite was unlucky. But after that, I’ve simply been so blessed.
The website Tracking Sharks collects data on shark attacks that have occurred all over the world, explains why they happen, and suggests techniques to avoid having unpleasant shark encounters in the future.
According to the website, as of July 1, there had been 32 shark bite attacks—of which three had been provoked—resulting in four fatalities.
According to Tracking Sharks, 15 shark attacks occurred in the United States (Hawaii 0, Florida 9, California 1, and 9 in Australia with 1 fatality).
In the event that a person sees a shark while swimming, experts advise not to move and to stay there.
Due to their sensitivity, experts advise hitting the shark in the nose with all their strength if they do decide to attack. According to experts, this will typically scare the shark away.
They also encourage people to stay motionless and watchful until the shark swims away if it is circling them in the water but does not appear to pose an imminent threat.
According to The International Shark File, Florida leads the globe in shark bites and is home to close to 40% of all shark attacks that are not provoked (ISAF).
According to its website, the ISAF, which is housed at the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History, is “the only global scientifically confirmed database of shark attacks.”
The ISAF estimated that since its founding in 1958, there have been more than 6,800 distinct investigations spanning the time from the early 1500s to the present.
According to the ISAF, Volusia County in Florida, which is known as the “Shark Bite Capital of the World,” had the most shark attacks (17 total), making up 63 percent of all attacks in Florida.
The 28 occurrences in Florida account for 60% of all unprovoked bites in the United States and 38% worldwide.
The most recent five-year yearly average of 25 instances in Florida is consistent with this.