NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla (WSVN)– A surfer was attacked by a shark over the weekend at a Florida beach. Now, he’s on the road to recovery and sharing the terrifying moments he realized he’d been bitten.
“It’s a miracle my hand was still working fine even before they did the surgery,” the victim said.
Mathew Bender spoke to the media from a hospital bed—grateful to move his fingers after being bitten by a shark Sunday afternoon while he was at New Smyrna Beach.
“I felt it plant down like a bear trap out of nowhere. Boom! And by the time I looked down it was already gone. I never saw the shark but it bit really forcefully. It felt like electricity and like extreme pressure and then I think it shook its head I definitely felt that as it was letting go. It was also fast,” he said.
After feeling the shark’s teeth sinking into his arm Bender was able to get out of the water and onto the sand, where other surfers rushed to his aid. He asked one of them for their leash, which is the part of the surf board that attaches to the surfers’ ankle, so he may use it as a tourniquet.
“I was squeezing the whole mangled area myself with my left hand and they were pulling the tourniquet there just above my elbow,” he said.
Life guards responded quickly and rushed him to the hospital.
“I was spurting blood from the bottom of my thumb all the way to almost a few inches from my elbow really like it’s a big,” sad Bender.
Bender said it was a 10-inch bite and doctors had to reconnect muscles, tendons and nerves—leaving him with a pretty gnarly scar.
“I don’t know if it will be the cool ones that chicks dig, but it might be ugly,” he said jokingly.
Bender still has a positive spirit and said he is ready to get back out in the water. Riding waves is his passion and he doesn’t plan to give it up.
“I think the Lord kept it from being serious. He works in mysterious ways for some reason I got to take a little break but I’ll be back out there. I’m a New Smyrna surfer at heart and it’s not gonna end now just because of this,” he said.
Doctors said Bender should be fully recovered in just a few months.
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