Woman speaks out from hospital bed after apparent shark attack in Southern California
A woman who suffered an apparent shark bite while swimming at a Southern California beach on Friday said she was still processing what happened following the harrowing experience.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. local time off a beach in Del Mar, north of San Diego.
The 50-year-old victim, Lyn Jutronich, was swimming with a friend at least 200 yards offshore when the incident occurred, Del Mar lifeguards told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV.
"I felt a huge, like a really hard hit -- I don't know how else to say this, like right between my legs," Jutronich told KGTV from her hospital bed Friday night. "It hurt, and it pushed me up and out of the water."
Jutronich, a frequent ocean swimmer, said she immediately knew it was a shark.
"I saw it clamp on my leg, so I don't know if I saw it bite my leg or if I saw it after it bit my leg. But I definitely saw the mouth," she said. "It was on my right leg and it shook once, kind of like a dog, and then it let me go."
She said she came up for air and told her swim partner what happened.
"I said, 'I've just been bit, I've just been bit, we've gotta get into shore,'" Jutronich told the station.
Jutronich started waving to lifeguards for help and appeared to be in distress. Lifeguards responded and brought her ashore, where they observed an injury consistent with a shark bite, city officials said in a press release.
Jutronich appeared to have suffered a shallow bite, the lifeguards told KGTV. She received medical aid at the scene before being transported to a local hospital, where she was reported to be in stable condition, officials said.
From her hospital bed, Jutronich said she was "feeling good," though she may not have processed everything yet.
The beach where the attack occurred is currently closed a mile north and south of 17th Street through at least Sunday morning, in accordance with guidance from the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach.
"Lifeguards continue to monitor the water after an initial search did not reveal sharks," the city said. "Lifeguards will continue to perform drone flyovers and patrol the area throughout the weekend from dawn until dusk."
The area is known to have juvenile white sharks in the waters. A dead juvenile white shark washed up on shore at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and State Beach in San Diego earlier this week, according to local reports.
Shark attacks are rare. There were 73 unprovoked incidents recorded around the world last year, according to yearly research conducted by the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File. Three of them occurred in California, resulting in one fatality.
