Only 14 sutures were required after a woman in Florida was bitten by a swimming shark during a birthday celebration on the Gulf Coast.
Plunging a buoy into the water, Natalie Branda, 26, unexpectedly experienced tension around her upper thigh while swimming in unclear waters at St. Pete’s Pier near St. Petersburg.
“I was bitten!” She informed Fox 13 Tampa Bay, “and I was like: ‘I was bitten!'” I simply felt some force, and it was relieved. “I swam the quickest I ever swam to the boat.”
The injuries extended from her buttocks to her navel.
Emergency responders were summoned and swiftly returned to the dock, exerting pressure on her injury as soon as Branda managed to climb back onto the boat with her companions.
At the time, Branda could only see her abdomen and her friends comforted her by saying “it’s not so terrible.”
“Then I looked back and everyone was like: ‘Oh, my God,'” Branda recalled.
The medical facility verified that the injuries were indeed caused by a shark attack when they sutured her wounds.
Allie Mucks, her friend, informed the local news source, “Walking away with just a few stitches and encountering people who have had similar experiences is not very common.”
In the future, while avoiding unclear water, Branda mentioned that she intends to return to the water but will be more cautious.
Branda said, “It really sucks that when you enter their home, being surrounded by large creatures, they don’t respect you. We are invading their home. It was the perfect cocktail for the perfect storm. The water was kind of murky. I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t know what we did last time.”
“I will most likely return to the water, but I must first recuperate.”
Brandon Boncore, a 22-year-old resident of Oviedo, was bitten while surfing at New Smyrna Beach on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, approximately 160 miles to the east. This incident occurred just two days after Branda’s previous surfing session.
In the region, Boncore observed sharks, but acknowledged that he didn’t spot his assailant when he toppled off his board and got bitten on his left ankle while surfing close to a channel on Monday.
I felt a certain kind of pulling down on me. I don’t think you would feel it as something bad, but I am sure it would hurt. This was what he told Fox 35 Orlando.
“I got fortunate, to be completely honest with you,” he stated. “It gave me a small love nibble.”
Help him to paddle back to shore, where he flagged down a fellow surfer — who is also a paramedic — managed.
After Boncore was taken to a hospital nearby, a shark fang was surgically extracted from his leg.
According to officials from Volusia County Beach Safety, two additional individuals were attacked by sharks at the identical beach last month.
Florida is the world’s capital for shark bites, with the highest number occurring in Volusia County.
Similar to Banda, Boncore mentioned that the attack will not prevent him from going into the water.
He exclaimed, “I’m definitely going in the back.” It is extremely rare for someone else to experience the same thing, but unfortunately it happened to me and I definitely knew the risks.