Shark Attack Victim Thanks Rescuer

It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in paradise, but for Harvey Miller, a trip to Hawaii turned into a nightmare.

The husband and father of four was snorkeling on Oahu when he was attacked by a shark. Thanks to Ray Howell, who rescued him, he is now recovering in a Honolulu hospital and says he is feeling much better.

The shark attacked Miller, who is from Ohio, as he was watching some fish along the reef line, he said.

"They kind of scattered and I thought that I had spooked them," he told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "So I started to look up to swim a little bit more along the reef line. And I saw the snout of the shark come right by my mask. And he spun me around, grabbed my leg and I just started punching him on the side as much as I could. And thankfully he let go."

Miller started screaming for help and Howell, who was playing cards on the shore with his family noticed the commotion in the water.

"When we heard Harvey's yelling — if he hadn't yelled, we wouldn't have heard him," Howell said. "We had seen him earlier snorkeling. His yelling and waving his hands is what drew our attention."

At that point, Howell said his whole family went into action. Howell went into the water and pulled Miller to shore, and his sister Barbara threw down a beach towel. They folded it twice to wrap around Miller's dangling leg as a makeshift tourniquet.

Miller said Howell is his hero and hearing him simply say, "I'm here," gave him the strength to keep going.

"I had no clue how I was going to, to — if the shark was behind me or where it was, but when I heard that phrase 'I'm here' and I looked and saw him, that was — that was everything that just kept me focused," Miller said. "I knew what I needed to do and where I needed to go. I owe my life to him. He can't walk away from that."