A surfer from Florida's Treasure Coast described the moments when he was bitten by a shark earlier this month.
Matt Picarelli told NBC affiliate WPTV-TV he was swimming at a beach March 12 in Fort Pierce when he felt a shark bite down on him.
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"It was a big animal next to me coming towards me and then, once it bit me, it took a chomp out of my foot and it just immediately left and just flew away, like so quick," the Stuart resident said. "Everything happening so quickly, it didn't feel real at all. It felt very surreal."
Strangers jumped into action and helped him out of the water. He was taken to a nearby hospital by a friend.
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"It was bleeding everywhere too, so I had a whole bunch of strangers helping me out, giving me water, putting pressure on the wound," he said. "Fifty stitches, broken tendon, chipped the bone. Yeah, it was – didn't look good."
Picarelli is still recovering and will be off his foot for six weeks before entering physical therapy. He said the moment still replays in his mind.
"Every night I've been having nightmares about it," he said. "I'm having sharks, whether I'm in the water or even in a room, coming towards me and biting my leg, biting my arm, biting my side, biting something, and attacking me."
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Still, he said it could have been much worse.
"I feel like I always have a positive mind. I'm optimistic," he said. "To every surfer, they know there's a danger of sharks and them being out there. We're in their house, essentially."
"I surfed my entire life," he added. "I'm a waterman. I love the ocean. I'm in there every day, so I don't see myself not going back in after this."
