A 17-year-old girl has lost part of her leg after being attacked by a shark but has her hero brother to thank for saving her life as he fought off the predator.
Addison Bethea was collecting scallops at a popular Florida beach when a nine feet long shark suddenly lunged at her last Thursday.
She had been wading through the water at no more than five feet of water, at Keaton Beach, when the predator pounced and gripped her leg.
Her brother Rhett Willingham, a fire fighter, said that he waded into the bloodied water and kicked the shark as he grabbed his sister and took her back to shore.
"She came back up and I saw, like, the blood and everything, and I saw the shark," Willingham said.
Talking to TV show Good Morning America he said : "So then I swam over there, grabbed her, and then pushed them all, kind of trying to separate them. And he just kept coming. So I grabbed her, swam backwards and kicked him and then yelled for help."
Addison told the station that she had tried to "punch" the shark after it came up and bit her.
"And the next thing I know something latches onto my leg and I was like that's not right. And then I look and it’s a big old shark," she said from her hospital bed.
"Then I remember from watching the Animal Planet to like...punch [it] in the nose or something like that. And I couldn't get around to his nose the way he bit me."
Emergency services rushed to the scene and Ms Bethea was treated on the beach before being airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial hospital.
She went in for surgery at the hospital and lost a part of her leg while she is waiting to have another operation.
A statement from Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said that Mr Willingham probably saved the teen's life by fighting off the shark and then putting a tourniquet on her leg to reduce the blood loss to the severe injury and kept her conscious.
“A family member reportedly jumped in the water and beat the shark until the juvenile was free,” the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to Facebook.
It also warned other people of the danger of shark attacks in the area.
“Boaters and swimmers are cautioned to be alert, vigilant and practice shark safety,” the press release said. “Some rules to follow are: never swim alone, do not enter the water near fishermen, avoid areas such as sandbars (where sharks like to congregate), do not swim near large schools of fish and avoid erratic movements while in the water.”
