OCEAN TERROR

Teen Survives Attack by Two Sharks While on Vacation

The 16-year-old Colorado girl has undergone about a dozen surgeries.

Two sharks attacked a 16-year-old Colorado girl while vacationing in Belize. Annabelle Carlson, who lives in Aspen, was on a family trip to the Central American country in August when the incident occurred. After a scuba dive with her mom, Annabelle got back onto the boat and decided to take turns jumping off the deck with her siblings. “I decided to go first,” Carlson said in an interview with KDVR. “And when I jumped and hit the water, a shark came from under the boat and started biting my hands.” She punched it roughly six times. A dive group threw her a life ring, but her “hands were pretty mangled,” so she had to wrap her arm around it. “And as they were pulling me in, another shark came and bit my right leg,” she said. People on the boat threw oxygen tanks at it, trying to thwart its attack. When she was finally back on the boat, they put a tourniquet around her leg that had bone exposed. She described staying awake to hold onto life for the 90-minute ride back to shore as “the hardest thing” she’s had to do. She was rushed to a local hospital and then taken to a Miami hospital after she was stabilized. However, she had to go to another hospital in Colorado to treat a “one-in-a-million” infection on her leg. She’s had about a dozen surgeries with another scheduled next month. “I would just say that everything happens for a reason and you’re always going to make it out of it,” she said.