The Colorado teenager who lost her right leg after she was bitten by a shark while on a diving trip in Belize says she's "lucky" to be alive following a painstaking recovery — and yet she's still determined to return to the ocean.
Annabelle Carlson, 15, was attacked by two sharks on Aug. 6 while on a family diving trip off the coast of Belize, resulting in damage to her hands and the loss of her leg.
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What followed was four months of recovery, seven surgeries, a bacterial infection and being outfitted with a prosthetic leg.
But Carlson is only grateful for her journey.
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“I’d say four months ago being in the hospital, I didn’t know where I was going to be now. But I’m definitely proud of where I am. And I’m so happy with how my life is going and how I’m alive right now,” she told NBC’s Morgan Chesky.
“Your really start to realize how lucky you are when you go through something like this,” she added.
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The attack
The attack unfolded as Carlson and her family — all avid divers — were at the Lighthouse Reef atoll in the Caribbean Sea.
An experienced diver with about 20 dives under her belt over the last three years, Carlson said she was used to seeing sharks underwater.
After about 40 minutes of diving, on the way back to the surface she noticed the sharks followed her dive group up a bit, which was unusual.
After the dive she and her siblings wanted to jump off the boat for a swim in the water. She went first.
“The second I hit the water — a shark almost — like it came from under the boat. I was facing the boat at this point. It started attacking my hands,” she recalled.
“It’s biting my hands. And it’s kind of weird so I kind of just start hitting it to try and hit it off me,” she said.
Her mother, Kellie Carlson, immediately noticed
“I was right there because I was getting my phone to take a picture of them jumping off. The minute she hit the water, the shark attacked her and I'm screaming yelling, ‘Somebody help. Help her!’” her mother said.
Two people in the dive group threw a life ring but “at that point her hands were pretty messed up,” Kellie said.
“As they’re pulling me in there’s a second shark that does bite my right leg,” Annabelle recalled.
The teen said the ordeal felt like it stretched “a really long time,” but in reality lasted about 30 seconds.
“It’s almost a feeling of being helpless,” she explained. “It was hard. It was scary.”
“It was completely painless. It felt like a tugging feeling, which was weird. It felt like I was playing tug of war a little bit … My adrenaline was so much to the point where, like, I didn’t even feel the second shark attack my leg,” she added.
People on the boat started throwing scuba tanks in the water to distract the sharks.
Finally, she was pulled onto the boat.
“As soon as they pulled her up, I knew right then and there I was going to have to do everything I could to save her life. Because basically her leg was missing from her knee to her ankle,” Kellie Carlson said. “All the soft tissue from her knee to her ankle was gone, and it was just her tibia and fibula.”
Good Samaritans on the boat, who the family described as “guardian angels,” tied a shirt around Carlson's leg as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding and they braced for the hour-long boat ride to a Coast Guard outpost for help.
She recalled “screaming because of the tourniquet pain. It really hurt.”
Kellie Carlson said her motherly instinct kicked in to do everything she could to save her daughter's life.
“When the shark attack happened, I was just in shock. And the first 24 hours I was in survival mode and trying to save her and making sure that everything was set up so that she was going to live,” she said.
Once the boat arrived to the Coast Guard post, the helicopter they were hoping for wasn't there. It eventually arrived, but two agonizing hours went by from the time of the bite to arriving at the hospital in Belize City.
“I wasn’t sure she was going to make it cause she was sheet white,” Kellie said.
Seven surgeries and fighting a bacterial infection
Annabelle underwent an initial surgery that amputated her leg.
“When I woke up from surgery…. My mom had to tell me that I didn’t have my leg anymore … On the boat, like I had this feeling of like I didn’t know if ... I was going to be there or not,” Annabelle said.
About three and half weeks after leaving Belize, the family went to Miami where Annabelle had an additional surgery to revise her amputation so it would be better suited for a prosthetic, and additional surgery on her hands to repair some nerves and tendon damage.
In total, she’s undergone seven surgeries.
After retuning to Colorado from Miami, Annabelle developed an abscess on her leg that ended up being an infection from a slow-growing micro-bacteria that she’s now fighting.
“She’s fighting it and we’re hopeful. All signs are pointing to good things,” her mother said. “We’ve learned that shark attacks are rare, and bacterial infections are even more rare. I’m really proud of her for where she’s at right now.”
Despite all she's endured, the teen says she wakes up every day with a positive spirit.
“But I wake up every day feeling grateful, just because, I mean, I’m here, and I’m able to walk again, I’m so lucky to be able to do so,” Annabelle said. “I think this situation just really goes to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Because I do have my prosthetic now. I’d say I’m thriving, right?”
The young athlete says her injury won't hold her back as she's determined to continue playing sports.
“I’m planning (on) playing lacrosse and using my prosthetic to ski, hopefully,” she said.
And the attack has left no fear of the ocean's depths.
“Hopefully (I'm) getting back into the ocean as soon as possible, too,” Annabelle said.
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