A pre-teen girl miraculously survived being bitten twice by a shark on a Florida beach and was left with 100 puncture wounds on her thigh that left her leg ‘dripping’ with blood.
Magnolia Woodhead, 12, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was visiting Cocoa Beach – near Orlando – for a gymnastic competition when she was bitten twice by a shark on Monday.
‘Right when I got out of the water, I just started screaming because I knew that it wasn’t good,’ she told Fox 35 Orlando. ‘My first thought was, like, I’m not going to do gymnastics.’
When her father picked her up out of the water, her mother, Melissa Stallings, saw Woodhead’s leg dripping with blood and the girl was rushed to the hospital with ’75 to 100 [bite marks[ up and down her little thigh.’ Woodhead would be given 50 stitches.
Magnolia Woodhead, 12, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was visiting Cocoa Beach – near Orlando – for a gymnastic competition when she was bitten twice by a shark on Monday
She received 50 stitches after the shark left around ’75 to 100′ puncture wounds
‘Right when I got out of the water, I just started screaming because I knew that it wasn’t good,’ the 12-year-old said
After being released from the hospital, she had to use a wheelchair to get around, including on her trip to Disney World.
And although she couldn’t compete in this year’s gymnastics competition, Woodhead did cheer on her teammates from the sidelines.
‘I was just there because I really wanted to support my teammates because I know they’ve worked so hard on this contest and stuff,’ she told Fox 35.
The pre-teen hopes to return to Florida for next year’s competition – minus the shark bite – but says she’ll be avoiding the beaches ‘for a long time.’
‘Shark bite was not on the agenda for the day, I’ll tell you that,’ her mother told the outlet.
Many sharks are lingering along the East Coast this holiday weekend, around 20 currently hanging out between Long Island and Cape Cod. Dozens of sharks have been spotted along the Florida Panhandle in recent days.
And although she couldn’t compete in this year’s gymnastics competition, Woodhead (pictured with her brother) did cheer on her teammates from the sidelines
The pre-teen (pictured with her mother) hopes to return to Florida for next year’s competition – minus the shark bite – but says she’ll be avoiding the beaches ‘for a long time’
Cocoa Beach – located in Brevard County – is just an hour away from Volusia County, which is known as the shark bite capital of the world.
Florida is one of the top states in the US – which ranks number one for shark bites in the world – where people are bitten by the animal, according to Floridapandle.com.
Florida has the most unprovoked attacks in the US as of last year. The Sunshine State’s 16 cases represent roughly 40 percent of the US total for unprovoked bites.
There’s only been around 1,200 shark attacks worldwide in the last 50 years, which a 14 percent fatality rate, according to Floridapanhandle.com.
Australia comes in second with a little over 250 attacks in the last 50 years, according to Floridapanhandle.com.
Out of the 1,200 attacks, great white sharks amounted to nearly 180 of them.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk