A 35-year-old woman has narrated how she fought off a six-foot shark that attacked her.
Gatekeepers News reports that Heather West from Montgomery, Texas, shared her story in a series of now-viral videos on TikTok, where her first clip has been viewed more than 16 million times.
She said that she was visiting Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida with some fellow adventure buffs in January, but the trip descended into chaos when they decided to take a dip in the water.
While her friends lingered on the shore nearby, West was filming in the ocean when she suddenly ‘sensed danger.’ Moments later, she was in the shark’s grip.
“A voice in my head said, ‘Get out now’,” West told Jam Press. “The second I was facing the beach I felt something grab me by my ankle.
“Even though just seconds before I saw all the guys on the beach, my brain still couldn’t comprehend what was happening, and I thought one of them grabbed me to scare me.
“I remember thinking how strong they were. It felt like my ankle was in a vice grip and it was so strong… I just sat there waiting for it to let go.’
West said she then felt a ‘massive jerk’ on her leg and realized it was a shark that was attacking her.
As it was dragging me through the water, I knew I was on my own and I needed to fight back if I wanted any chance at surviving,’ she recalled.
“I flipped over on my back, with my leg still facing the opposite direction, and started kicking at his face with my good leg.”
West explained that she had flippers on and “couldn’t get the propulsion [she] needed to give him a good smack in the face.”
“I was so mad that I used him as leverage and sat up in the water, screaming, “You motherf****r!” while punching down into the water at his face with both fists — and that’s when he decided to let go.”
Immediately she was free, West, who thought her foot was gone, yelled to her friends for help.
“Blood was filling the water and I couldn’t see where he went,’ she said. ‘I felt like I was in a Jaws movie at that moment.”
West’s friends eventually dragged her by her arms to the beach, and one of them made a tourniquet, applying pressure to the wound on her foot, while another person tried to find help.
“At this point, I still thought my foot was gone,” she said. “I looked down and saw it still attached and started screaming, ‘I can’t believe I won!'”
“I was really happy afterwards. I just felt so grateful to be alive,” she said. “I wasn’t upset or crying at all. I just kept saying, ‘Wow, that was a wild ride!'”
After describing the predator, two locals identified it as a 6-foot lemon shark that had been circling around and attacking birds for some time.
West was taken to a nearby island before being put on a charter plane to Lower Keys Medical Center in Stock Island, Florida.
Her post garnered comments from thousands of TikTok users, many of whom were enthralled by her story.
