FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 2 (UPI) -- A 22-year-old woman is in stable condition after a shark attacked her while she was tubing in Fort Lauderdale Sunday afternoon.
Jessica Vaughn described her attack to local reporters from a recovery bed at Broward Health Medical Center, saying, "It was really scary."
"Before we went out, I said I don't like going into the water ... when I can't see what's down there," she continued. "I've always had feelings of something down under there because of the dark murky waters."
Vaughn's fears proved true when shortly after boarding an inflatable water tube, she nearly lost one of her legs.
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"At first I felt like something punched my leg. I thought a fish bit me. Then I saw my leg was cut open. I realized it wasn't a fish."
"It came up from behind her and bit her leg and then kind of smacked its tail and most of its body out of the water, hit her in the face actually, and took off," witness Peter Hogge told local reporters.
Hogge and others immediately attended to Vaughn's injuries, efforts rescuers say may have saved her life.
"They did a really good job," said Timothy Heiser, deputy fire chief at Fort Lauderdale Fire Department. "She could have lost too much blood and died."
The latest shark attack comes less than a month after 38-year-old Amy Tatsch survived when an unidentified shark nearly bit off her entire calf and Achilles tendon in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.
A great white shark named Katherine has eased local concerns after researches tracking the fish said it is no longer moving along the Straits of Florida and has moved on to the Gulf of Mexico.
