(CNN) — Two American ladies are recovering after they are saying they have been attacked by a shark whereas swimming in The Bahamas.
The reported assault occurred on Feb. 7 round 6:30 p.m. within the waters of Bimini Bay, the place authorities are investigating, in line with the Royal Bahamas Police Drive.
Summer season Layman, 24, and Rileigh Decker, 20, instructed CNN on Tuesday that they’re grateful their accidents weren’t worse, however are nonetheless recovering from the incident.
“It destroyed my leg principally. It severed my Achilles. My artery is severed, my nerve is severed,” Decker instructed CNN from her hospital mattress in Melbourne, Florida.
She mentioned she and Layman determined to affix her dad’s annual journey to Bimini Bay, a well-liked vacationer vacation spot within the western Bahamas famend for its pristine seashores and fishing.
After they arrived on Friday, they have been singing and dancing on prime of a ship with their pals after they mentioned that they had a spur-of-the-moment concept to leap into the water.
“It’s not one thing we haven’t carried out earlier than,” Layman mentioned. In actual fact, the 2 defined that they met and have become pals on a ship in Florida.
Decker says they seemed under and noticed no signal of sharks when she jumped in, however whereas they have been within the water, she felt a nudge on her leg.
As they started swimming to the ladder on the dock, Decker felt one thing tug at her leg. “Instantly I knew that I used to be simply bit by a shark,” she mentioned.
Their good friend, Austin, was there and instantly started to assist the 2 of them out of the water. Each ladies say issues may have been a lot worse if he hadn’t acted so rapidly.
“It bit and type of launched as an alternative of biting and taking my calf with it,” Decker shared.
As they waited for medical personnel to reach, they made a makeshift tourniquet out of rope that was on a close-by boat to placed on Decker’s leg.
“I heard her screaming so I went into panic mode for her, naturally that was simply my intuition,” Layman mentioned. “And I seemed down and my foot was utterly shredded. I didn’t even notice that I used to be bit. I used to be simply in battle or flight.”
Each ladies have been pushed to a clinic on the island on a golf cart, the place they started therapy. Decker, whose accidents have been extra extreme, was flown to Nassau for care. They each finally flew again to Florida, the place extra intensive medical care was obtainable, they mentioned.
The ladies mentioned they endured a lot of the journey with out painkillers.
Layman, who’s out of the hospital, confirmed off the brand new pink solid on her foot. She acquired 48 stitches and is awaiting a doable pores and skin graft.
Decker has had two surgical procedures thus far and was transferred to a hospital in Orlando for added surgical procedures to restore the nerve and artery in her leg.
“I’m simply very grateful to be right here nonetheless and even have my leg,” Decker mentioned, noting that many individuals who get bit by sharks aren’t fortunate sufficient to make it out of the water.
“We’ve got our limbs and we’re right here to inform the story, so we’re actually grateful,” Layman added. “The possibilities are very slim, nonetheless; it occurred to us.”
CNN has reached out to the Royal Bahamas Police Drive for remark.
Unprovoked shark assaults are uncommon within the Bahamas, with simply 34 recorded since 1580, in line with the Florida Museum’s Worldwide Shark Assault File. This ranks the Caribbean nation ninth amongst all tracked international locations, with the US main at 1,640 circumstances, adopted by Australia with 706 and South Africa with 262, the info reveals.
Nevertheless, final week’s incident is at the very least the third reported shark assault involving American vacationers within the Bahamas since 2023.
In January 2024, a 10-year-old boy from Maryland was bitten whereas taking part in a shark tank expedition at a resort on Paradise Island, the police mentioned. In December 2023, a 44-year-old girl from Boston was fatally attacked by a shark whereas paddleboarding close to a seashore resort.
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