A 16-year-old girl survived being bitten by a shark while boogie boarding on vacation in Florida, according to new report.
Jackie Jozaitis said she was in knee-high water off the coast of Amelia Island when she was attacked early Friday.
“I felt like a jaw snap on my foot,” the teen told Fox 13. “I was freaking out. I took my foot off and I’m like, ‘What bit me?’
“I started running out of the water and when I got to the shore, I looked down and it was like, open,” she added, referring to the back of her left foot.
Luckily, the friend she was with had just finished training at a medical camp and knew what to do. Staff at the resort she was staying at to celebrate a friend’s birthday also raced to help, applying pressure to stem the bleeding.
“She grabbed a towel, wrapped my foot and elevated it,” said Jackie, who recalled to WFLA 8 that it left “blood all over the sand, all over the pool deck.”
She posed for a smiling pic with paramedics in an ambulance, admitting she was “kind of loopy because I’d lost so much blood.”
“I was like, ‘I’ll be fine! I can knock it off my bucket list,’” she recalled with a smile.
Doctors told her a 3- to 4-foot black tip or sand shark likely bit her foot and heel. They also said it was just a centimeter (less than a half-inch) away from damaging her Achilles tendon, she said.
Her mom, Robin Jozaitis, was 300 miles away in Sarasota — and was stunned when told what had happened.
“The chances are so unlikely. It was just so surprising,” she told Fox 13.
Jackie is expected to make a full recovery, with her biggest frustration having to miss marching band practice.
Her friends, meanwhile, are making light of the attack — gifting her a “Jaws” T-shirt as well as a new boogie board with “Nice to eat you” on it.
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