The 19-year-old model, Katarina Zarutskie was recently attacked by a shark in the Bahamas while posing for a photo.
Katarina from California is a nursing student and aspiring model. She was on vacation with her boyfriend and his family in the Bahamas when she posed with sharks for her Instagram post.
Suddenly, a five-foot nurse shark bit her arm and dragged her underwater.
She said: ‘’When he bit me, supposedly it sounded like a big vacuum seal,’’ ‘’Next thing I knew I was underwater.’’
‘’I knew I couldn’t get my blood in the water,’’
‘When they see blood that means food.’’
‘’Adrenaline was kicking in and I knew I just needed to get out of the water.’’
She told NBC News: ‘’’I was pulled underwater for a few seconds and then ripped my wrist out of the shark’s mouth as fast as I could.’’
She went to the local clinic to cure her wounds but she had to flee to Florida for further treatment when she learned that shark bites have a high risk of getting infected.
The incident happened at on Staniel Cay Island, which is famous for clear blue water and usually docile nurse sharks. A sign by the water aware tourists that nurse sharks can and do bite.
But still, visitors often swim with the sharks and Katarina was one of them who took the risk to swim with the sharks.
Daniel Hocker, who owns Staniel Cay marina, said: ‘’These animals are considered quite docile but can and do bite on occasion,’ he told the outlet. ‘Normally when they mistake a hand or fingers for a piece of food.’’
Katarina said that she didn’t see the sign and did not swim with the sharks through a tour company or local organization.
She said her boyfriend’s family was ‘freaking out’ when she told them she wanted to swim with the sharks.
‘’The doctors now believe that I still have pieces of the shark teeth in my arm and I will forever have a scar,’’
‘’I am so fortunate that I still have my arm and my life, she said.’’
Katarina clicked a picture with a bandage over her injury and said she felt lucky to be alive after the attack.