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A shark attack survivor has recalled the moment she thought she might not survive a violent encounter – but admitted that she still “loves” the creatures.
Anika Craney was bitten in the lower part of her left leg while freediving in Australia in 2020.
Thanks to the quick assistance of those around her, she was able to survive the encounter, and even kept her leg despite losing a lot of blood.
Now, in a Channel 4 YouTube documentary episode, the Australian has reflected on the day of the attack.
Anika described how she had got into the water near the beach, noticing that the water was “really murky”, with the pair barely able to see beyond their arms.
And, this fear soon spiralled when Anika spotted a shark barreling towards her.
“I prepared myself, I moved my fins around from behind me, and put them out in front of me, and then I felt the impact,” she recalled.
“I felt this pressure on my left leg. Honestly I thought it had just hit me with its head, so my instinctive reaction was to kick it off.
“It wasn’t until I saw the blood pooling around me that I actually realised it had bitten me.”
Realising that she was losing “a lot of blood”, Anika began to scream for help, and feared the worst.
“I realised the shark might come back and bite me again, and if it did I might not survive this,” she continued.
Frantically, the experienced freediver attempted to make her way out of the water, and was soon rescued by a woman on a paddleboard.
The Australian was rushed to the shore, where a man quickly strapped her leg into a tourniquet, before medics airlifted her to hospital.
It was only once she was safely settled into a hospital bed that Anika realised what injuries she had actually sustained.
“The shark bit the lower part of my left leg, all the way to the bone; it left a couple of teeth in my tibia. It severed an artery, and caused a lot of pain,” she said.
“I was in the hospital for eight days, the wound itself took about two months to heal over.”
But, despite the traumatic incident, Anika has been keen to share her story on her social media profiles, and even joined Bite Club – a group of survivors who support each other by talking about their experiences.
She acknowledged: “I actually chose to swim with sharks, and I’m glad that I did. It was a really wonderful way to make peace with the experience.
“I still love sharks, I’m always thinking about them when I’m in the water. There is still fear, but I continue to choose love over fear.”
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- Shark Attacks
- Sharks
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