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Chantelle Doyle survived a Great White Shark attack on Australia’s NSW Mid North Coast and made it to the beach with ‘severe lacerations’ to her right leg all thanks to a heroic act from her husband.
The married couple were out surfing together when the estimated 10-foot-long Great White Shark grabbed hold of her leg and shredded her flesh like hamburger meat and that’s when her husband paddled over, jumped off his board, and repeatedly punched the shark right in its dang face.
I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around the instincts that kick in when you see blood in the water, a Great White Shark attacking, and your body is telling you to leap off your board and beat the crap out of the shark but that’s exactly what it sounds like happened here.
Here’s the story from the Sydney Morning Herald:
“Chantelle Doyle, 35, was attacked by the two- to three-metre shark at Shelly Beach in Port Macquarie on Saturday morning, sustaining “severe lacerations” to her right leg.
Her husband jumped off his surfboard and onto the juvenile great white when it refused to release her.
“This fella paddled over and jumped off his board onto the shark and hit it to get it to release her and then assisted her back into the beach,” Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said. “Pretty full on, really heroic.”
Bystanders and paramedics treated the woman at the scene before she was taken to Port Macquarie Hospital. She was then flown to Newcastle Hospital to undergo surgery. She remains in a stable condition.”
After the incident, the beach was closed down for ‘at least’ 24 hours and local emergency response crews used drones, jet-skis, and rescue boats to patrol the area for sharks. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the shark responsible for the attack was spotted by emergency services afterward but it has since gone missing.
This is actually the third attack from a Great White Shark on NSW’s Mid North Coast in the past few months. They are said to be having an ‘unusually busy period for shark encounters’ as they are coming out of Winter and there are a lot of whales migrating through the area.
For more on this incident, you can visit the Sydney Morning Herald.