‘I WAS DYING’

Diver’s Leg Amputated After Horror Shark Attack

Heidi Ernst, 73, has spoken from her hospital bed about the moment a shark attacked her leg as she was climbing onto a boat in the Bahamas and how she survived.

Heidi Ernst, has recalled the terrifying moment a shark got hold of her leg and started shaking from side to side trying to bite it off. The 73-year-old scuba diver, who has more than 500 dives under her belt over the past 11 years, was climbing back onto a boat after a dive in the Bahamas on June 7 when the shark jumped out of the water and took hold. Ernst told The Gazette she was quickly able to hit the shark and it let go. Her fellow divers made a tourniquet and kept her gaze as they called an ambulance to meet them at the dock. “There was blood everywhere,” she said. “I was dying. I was going to bleed to death. I was afraid I was going to die and was in severe pain.” “They were very instrumental in keeping me alive,” she said. “Everybody was.” Ernst made the decision with her doctors to amputate her leg from the shin down. Friends have started a GoFundMe for the woman, calling her “fearless, kind, gentle, giving, honest” and a “wonderful friend.” “Heidi is a proud, independent woman that does not like to ask for help but her friends want to help her and this is a way,” added the organizer.