A 15-year-old survived a shark attack while surfing off the coast of New Jersey over the weekend and shared the horror she had to go through. Maggie Drozdowski said she did not fully realise what happened until she emerged from the ocean, according to CBS News. The girl now walks on crutches since the shark bit her foot so hard she required several stitches. Ms Drozdowski said she is sharing her story in hope no one else has to go through it.
"I was in shock and I didn't even realize what was going on until I was out of the water. But it scared me. I screamed under the water. It was scary," the teenager told the outlet.
A call to emergency number 911 said Ms Drozdowski was bleeding pretty badly.
The girl said she entered the sea along with her friend and after a big wave, lost her surf board. It was then that the shark grabbed her foot and pulled her underwater.
"I really shook it off as much as I could. It was hard though it was heavy. But I shook my foot as hard as I could to get it off," Ms Drozdowski told CBS News.
Her friend, Sarah O'Donnell, said it was extremely scary.
"She got up and she was screaming, 'Something bit me, something bit me'. So I said 'Quickly get on the board and paddle away,' because I thought it was a crab or something. I could never imagine a shark," she recalled.
New York Post quoted Ms Drozdowski as saying that she reached dry land in 3-4 minutes and wrapped a towel around the wounded area to stop bleeding before paramedics arrived.
"I thought I was gonna have to get my foot amputated. But it didn't end up being that bad," she said.
Officials confirmed in a statement that the surfer's wounds were "consistent with those typically associated with a shark of unknown size and type".
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