A grandmother has described how she found the courage to fight off a great white shark which attacked her twice while she was swimming near her home in South Australia.
Pam Cook, 64, required 200 stitches after she was mauled by a juvenile great white during her morning swim near the Beachport Pier on October 2.
She was in the water with about 20 members of the Beachport Sea Urchins and Slugs open water swimming group and was about 100 yards from shore when she felt something grab her ankle.
She looked down to see the shark, with jaws as wide as a “basketball”, devastating her leg.
Australian grandmother Pam Cook (pictured) has described how she found the courage to fight off a great white shark which attacked her twice.
While she was swimming in the morning next to the Beachport jetty in South Australia, the shark first latched onto her lower leg, before attacking her a second time.
The 64-year-old South Australian bar manager fought off the shark. She then required more than five hours of surgery on her legs, arms and hand.
“I started shouting ‘shark, shark!’ and then he left and I was still pulling myself together (then) he came from below and attacked my left thigh,” she said. The advertiser.
She described it as “a sort of chewing” on her thigh and admitted that “my life flashed before my eyes.”
The grandmother said she felt no pain when the shark bit her and managed to fend off the predator with her hand, which was badly cut in the process.
“I didn’t feel any pain, I didn’t feel it as it was happening,” said Ms. Cook, bar manager at the nearby Beachport Hotel.
Despite being covered in bite marks, Ms Cook managed to swim 15 meters to a ladder on the 772 meter pier.
She then somehow pulled herself up the ladder before collapsing, bleeding profusely.
Faced with the choice of fighting or dying, the grandmother felt no pain despite its sharp teeth digging deep into her flesh, and managed to fend off the predator.
Residents covered her with blankets and towels and waited for paramedics. Maintenance worker Greg Rae applied a tourniquet to his leg.
Ms. Cook remembers feeling increasingly cold but safe.
She had to undergo five-and-a-half hour surgery for injuries to her thigh, ankle, hands and arms at Mt Gambier Hospital.
Despite flashbacks of the shark clinging to her leg, Ms Cook plans to join her swimming club in the water before Christmas.
“It’s just a wonderful group and I can’t imagine not being a part of this group, so I’m definitely getting back in the water.”
Despite flashbacks of the shark clinging to her leg, incredibly, Mrs Cook plans to join her swimming club in the water before Christmas.
READ MORE: What bites a great white shark in half?
Victorian beachgoers were left horrified after discovering the remains of a four meter long great white shark which had washed up on shore with half of its body missing.
The body of the great white shark (photo) was found on Bridgewater beach by locals on Tuesday.
