One of the victims of a horrific July 4 shark attack in Texas is speaking out from her hospital bed.
Tabatha Sullivent, a resident Texan, is missing part of her leg after the terrifying ordeal and is set to undergo surgery on Tuesday. She was one of four victims to encounter the same shark off South Padre Island last Thursday.
“I turned around and saw something dark in the water,” she told Fox 4 Texas. “And I thought it was a big fish, and I was going to kick it away. That’s when it grabbed me.”
Sullivent was swimming with her daughter near a sandbar when the predator struck.
“I think it let go of me, and I was able to start swimming to the beach with one leg and my arms,” she said. “It didn’t grab me there. Then I got closer to the beach, and people started pulling me out. My husband had me first. But then he dropped me because the shark was in a pursuit.”
“My leg is pretty much gone,” Sullivent continued. “If I didn’t have people pulling me out … I don’t think it would’ve stopped.”
Beachgoers could still see the shark lurking in knee-deep water even after she was pulled to shore. Sullivent’s husband, Cary, was also bit on the leg, but not as severely.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department said in a statement that “two people were bitten and two people encountered the shark but were not seriously injured.”
“Shark encounters of this nature are not a common occurrence in Texas,” the statement continued. “When bites from sharks do occur, they are usually a case of mistaken identity by sharks looking for food. If you see large schools of bait near the shore, this typically is an indicator a predator is nearby, or if you see a shark in the water, calmly exit the water and wait for the predatory wildlife to pass.”
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