Global Courant 2023-05-16 12:07:36
A 13-year-old girl said she was bitten several times last week by a bull shark while in the ocean with a friend near her South Florida home.
Ella Reed sustained injuries to her stomach, arm and leg and required stitches as a result of the attack at Fort Pierce Inlet State Park in St. Lucie County.
The attack took place in the shallow area where the waves break near the shore, Reed explained to WPTV.
Showing off a stitched wound on her stomach, the teen told the outlet that it “would have been really, really bad” if the shark had bitten harder.
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A teenage girl said she was in the ocean with a friend near her home in South Florida when she was bitten by a four-foot bull shark. (Getty/FILE)
She then recalled the moment when the shark, which she said was at least four feet long, swam past her friend and attacked her.
“It went under her and came straight to me and got my stomach first, and I tried to block it with my arm and my hand, and it slipped in and grabbed my finger and my arm, and it darted around and got my leg again,” she said. “The first part didn’t really hurt because of all the adrenaline.”
Reed, who said she was “so shocked”, immediately jumped out of the water and hurried home to warn her mother.
Ella and her boyfriend were in waist-deep water at Fort Pierce Inlet State Park on Thursday when a shark attacked her. (Getty/FILE)
“At first I seriously thought it was a joke,” says Devin Reed, the teen’s mother.
When her parents realized it wasn’t a joke, they took her to a fire station in St. Lucie County. From there, firefighters rushed her to the hospital.
Devin said her family has lived in the North Hutchinson Island community for more than 20 years and has never worried about a shark attack.
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Ella said she plans to return to the water once her stitches are removed. (Getty/FILE)
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“Pretty scary stuff, but luckily (Ella) is there talking to you, and once you can see, ‘Okay, she’s fine,’ then you calm down a bit,” Devin said, adding that the whole experience “was surreal.”
While Ella said the attack was scary, she said it won’t keep her out of the water once her stitches are removed. She also said she has a newfound respect for the ocean and the creatures that live in it.
