Shark Bite Victim To Surf Again
Attacked While Surfing; Expected To Make Full Recovery
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Shark Victim Recounts Attack
Megan Halavais was attacked by a 14-foot great white shark at Salmon Creek Beach along the Sonoma, Calif., coast. Halavais got away after hitting the shark on its tail. Hattie Kauffman reports.
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Megan Halavais during hospital news conference (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
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Dr. Dave Hardin, who treated Megan Halavais, and eyewitness David Bryant on The Early Show Thursday. (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
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A shark warning sign is seen above Salmon Creek Beach near Bodega Bay, Calif. Megan Halavais, 20, of Santa Rosa, Calif., was seriously injured when she was attacked by a shark while surfing. (AP /Mark Aronoff)
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Halavais described her ordeal during a news conference at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Thursday, reports Hattie Kauffman.
She told reporters, "I looked back and it was like, huge, straight out of 'Jaws.' … (It) came up from behind me, (then,) chomp!
"I just turned right away, and I was like, 'Shark!' It was huge. It was like twice the size of me. Huge fin, like, the fin was as tall as me."
Halavais, 20, was surfing about a mile north of Bodega Bay, Calif. Wednesday when the shark struck.
"It wasn't like, 'I have to fight for my life,' " she continued. "It was like, 'Whoa, ahh, what's going on?' … I barely remember. I remember grabbing the shark. I don't remember going underwater."
Friends surfing nearby saw her vanish.
"We we charging in ... slapping the water and screaming at the shark: 'Hey, no, no, no," David Bryant told the assembled media.
Bryant, who was only a few feet away,
"We all started paddling toward her right away," lifeguard Brit Horn said in a separate interview. "She popped up, screaming."
Friends helped pull Halavais to shore. She was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Her leg had nearly been severed.
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