A young woman named Addison Bethea, now eighteen,
lost her leg after being attacked by a shark while collecting shells off the northwest coast of Florida in the United States.
On that day, Addison was with her brother Rhett Willingham, a firefighter and emergency medical services technician.
A year later, after her graduation ceremony, she returned to the same beach where it all happened and swam with her brother, just like on the day of the attack.
The girl lost her right leg and was in the hospital for several weeks. So, after several months of rehab to learn how to live as an amputee, she returned to the site of the attack with her brother. Addison said she remembers every detail of the attack.
“I felt someone pull me under the water and I saw the huge shark,” he said. Initially she felt no pain.
To no avail, the young woman started calling for help and her brother heard her voice. The young man remembered that he should have tried to touch the shark’s eyes or hit it on the nose.
He wrestled with the shark and managed to get Addison onto a boat before taking her to the hospital. Fortunately, brave Rhett was able to free his sister.
However, Adisson had lost a leg. After six surgeries and a great rehabilitation effort, the pupil was able to return to school in September, three months after the attack, as she was a very active person.
“I entered high school with my prosthesis perfectly normal, no crutches or anything,” she recalled.
