Teen Shark Attack Victim Hunter Treschl Says He 'Didn't See It Coming'
— -- One of the young victims of a pair of brutal shark attacks in North Carolina spoke out from his hospital bed, calmly describing how he didn't see the shark until it chomped down on his arm and "got that off," according to videos released by the hospital Tuesday night.
Hunter Treschl, 16, lost part of his arm in the attack, this past Sunday, off the coast of Oak Island, North Carolina, but he said he won't let the traumatic incident get him down, vowing instead to "fight and live a normal life."
A 12-year-old girl, Kiersten Yow, also lost an arm in a similar attack in the area just 90 minutes before. Her family said that she was expected to be able to keep one of her legs, which was also injured in the attack.
Treschl said that he was in waist-deep water playing with his cousin when he felt a "hit" on his left leg.
"Then I felt it ... one more time and it kind of hit my arm and that was the first I saw it when it was biting up my left arm kind of," he calmly recounted from his hospital bed at New Hanover Regional Medical Center NC.
"Then it got that off," he said.
After that he was able to get of the water and to the beach with the help of his cousin.
"I didn't see it coming," he said.
Throughout the ordeal, he was conscious, and recalled being surrounded by 25 people in the hospital.
The staff "fixed my arm up," he said. "Did a pretty good job of it too from what I hear.
"It feels good."
Treschl said that in the wake of the traumatic event, he was faced with a choice.
"So I kind of have two options -- I can try to live my life the way I was and make an effort to do that even though I don't have an arm or I can kind of just let this be completely debilitating," he said.
"Out of those two, there's really only one that I would choose to do and that's to try and fight and live a normal life with the cards I've been dealt," he said.
