Mum-of-three Elisabeth Foley is lucky to be alive after her encounter with the beast while holidaying in Walton County, Florida
A woman who miraculously survived a shark attack has told how she spotted the predator lurking behind her in the water before it suddenly ‘snapped her hand right off’.
Elisabeth Foley was enjoying a break with her husband Ryan and their three children in Walton County, Florida, when horror struck while they were enjoying a day of relaxation at WaterSound Beach.
The 45-year-old was cooling off in the water with her loved ones at around 1.30pm on 7 June when she sensed something sinister was tailing her.
To her horror, it turned out to be a shark, which proceeded to sink it’s teeth into her legs and torso before tearing her arm off – with witnesses describing how the ocean turned crimson red with blood.
After spending more than two months in hospital and undergoing a whopping 19 operations, Elisabeth is adjusting back to normality and now, she has opened up about her terrifying experience.
“I just looked behind me and I saw this huge, dark mass,” Elisabeth said.
“I was like, ‘What is that?’ I just knew I wanted to get away from it. So I started swimming towards the shore and that’s when he bit me between the legs, because I was kicking.
“I just started screaming.”
Elisabeth bravely tried to punch the beast on it’s nose to scare it away, but unfortunately, she ‘missed the mark’.
“It grabbed me by my hand and pulled me under,” she recalled. “That’s when I thought I was going to die. The power of the jaws snapped my hand right off. I had about four inches of my bone sticking out.”
Elisabeth’s cries of agony alerted other beachgoers as well as her husband, who rushed over to haul her back to shore.
Elisabeth Foley was attacked by a shark while holidaying in Florida with her family (Inside Edition)
The couple’s 17-year-old daughter, Laurel, also witnessed the shark attack and likened her mum’s injuries to ‘special effects’, adding: “Her skin was in shreds.”
A host of beachgoers rushed over to help the family, while one onlooker called 911 and explained that Elisabeth was ‘losing blood very, very rapidly’.
“Her lips are losing colour,” they said. “Please, please, we need emergency here now! This is said. We’re going to lose her. I’m not kidding. She is losing blood fast!”
Fortunately, there were a few medics nearby who were also enjoying a day on the sand – such as paramedic Rylee Smith and nurses Abby Judeman and Bailey Massa – and they sprang into action.
Bystanders fashioned makeshift tourniquets out of beach towels and t-shirts while administering care to the mum.
Bystanders rushed to the mum’s aid and saved her life after her husband hauled her back to shore (Inside Edition)
Elisabeth continued: “I just cried out to God and I said, ‘Please don’t let me die, I don’t want to die’. Not yet.”
Chilling bodycam footage captured by police officers who responded to the incident shows how the mum-of-three was surrounded by a crowd of Good Samaritans who desperately tried to save her life – and incredibly, their efforts paid off.
Her husband Ryan said: “People who didn’t know us just clamoured towards us to help us. It was pretty amazing.”
Elisabeth was then airlifted to a nearby hospital, where she spent the next two months, while undergoing more than a dozen complex procedures.
She now uses a prosthetic hand and will need to have further reconstructive surgery on her pelvis, where the shark also managed to sink it’s teeth.
Watching the bodycam footage back, an emotional Elisabeth said: “I remember. I remember the whole thing. I’m so thankful to all those people who saved my life. There are not even words to describe how grateful I am.”
