What began as an ordinary day on the water quickly turned into a fight for survival when a teenage girl was attacked by a nine-foot shark — and her brother didn’t hesitate for a second before diving in to save her.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The terrifying incident unfolded off Keaton Beach, Florida, in June 2022, where 17-year-old Addison Bethea was scalloping in around five feet of water alongside her brother, Rhett Willingham, KSAT reports.
Without warning, the shark became aggressive and clamped onto Addison’s right leg.
As the animal dragged her beneath the surface, Rhett — who works as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Taylor County — raced towards his sister, launching himself into the water to fight the shark.
According to authorities, Rhett repeatedly beat the shark until it finally released Addison, allowing him to pull her to safety.
The siblings, along with a nearby boater who responded after hearing Addison’s cries for help, managed to get back onto a boat before rushing towards shore.
There, Rhett and other boaters quickly tied a tourniquet around Addison’s leg to control the catastrophic bleeding while emergency responders made their way to the scene.
She was then airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, where doctors immediately began treating what the hospital described as “devastating damage to the soft tissue in her right leg.”
Although she was stabilised and underwent emergency surgery, doctors later carried out additional operations to assess the full extent of the injuries and determine whether her leg could be saved.
Ultimately, despite multiple surgeries, Addison lost her right leg above the knee.
The attack happened just weeks before she was due to begin her senior year of high school.
Looking back on the terrifying encounter, Addison said she remembers every second of the moment the shark attacked.
“When it latched on and pull me under with my calf, I remember that exact moment,” Addison told ABC News. “It felt like someone just pulling you under water, like that scary sensation when someone just touches you in the water. I didn’t feel any pain or anything the entire time it bit me other than when I tried to pry it off with my hands.”
A fan of shark documentaries and videos long before the attack, she instinctively tried to remember what she had learned.
She knew she should aim for the shark’s eyes or strike its nose to make it let go.
But the way the animal had seized her made that impossible.
Instead, she screamed.
“My brother was the one that heard me scream … and when he turned around, I was actually pulled under the water by the shark,” she said. “I came back up and I was screaming for him.”
She added: “It’s almost like when you’re in a dream, and you’re trying to scream in a dream, and it feels like nothing’s coming out. That’s what I felt like in that moment, so I belted as loud as I could.”
Thankfully, her brother heard those screams.
Another nearby boater also rushed over to help after hearing Addison call for help, with the three working together to get her out of the water before she could receive emergency medical treatment.
Once aboard the boat, the full horror of her injuries became clear.
“When she and her brother got back onto the boat with the help of the good Samaritan, Bethea said they saw that “everything was gone” from her right thigh.
The weeks that followed proved every bit as challenging as surviving the attack itself.
After being airlifted to hospital, Addison underwent six surgeries. Doctors reconstructed much of her right thigh before amputating her leg above the knee, allowing her to eventually be fitted with a prosthetic.
Throughout her recovery, she focused on maintaining a positive outlook, something inspired by her father.
“What my dad used to tell me in the hospital [was], ‘Today is going to be a good day,'” Bethea recalled. “Even if it’s not a perfect day, just find one good thing out of your day to keep you going … just be grateful.”
While recovering in hospital and later rehabilitation, Addison set herself a goal that helped keep her motivated.
She wanted to walk independently during her high school’s homecoming celebrations.
“During homecoming week is when you walk in the fancy dresses down the football field,” she said. “That’s something I’ve always loved doing, and the parade, and I wanted to be able to do that again one last time for senior year.”
Before the shark attack, Addison had been a cheerleader and enjoyed weightlifting and staying active.
She believes that lifestyle helped speed up her recovery, allowing her to adapt quickly to using a prosthetic leg.
Just three months after the attack, she returned to school.
When she was named to her school’s homecoming court, she achieved the goal she had set while lying in hospital.
“It was different, but I was able to do it,” she said. “I walked on the field with my prosthetic perfectly normal, without crutches or anything.”
She also returned to cheer alongside her teammates at one final high school football game.
Despite the life-changing injury, Addison says those closest to her have made sure she continues enjoying the activities she loves.
“If I’m wanting to go on a four-wheeler or something, we’ll do that and they’ll make sure I’m OK. Or if we’re going on the boat, they’ll make sure everything is good … They’ll carry me up the stairs,” Bethea said. “‘I’m still doing the stuff I used to do, it’s just little slower and it’s a learning process, but I still do it my own ways.”
Another major milestone came when she walked independently across the stage at her high school graduation.
Almost exactly one year after the attack, Addison returned to the very same stretch of water off Keaton Beach where everything had changed.
This time, once again accompanied by her brother Rhett, she climbed back into the ocean.
Rather than fear, she felt something very different.
“I felt completely safe. It felt perfectly normal,” Bethea told Good Morning America. “It didn’t make me sad or anything. I didn’t get emotional. It was just like [a] back to just normal kind of thing, hop back into routine.”
The experience reinforced her determination not to let one traumatic event define the rest of her life.
Inspired by the rehabilitation she received, Addison also hopes to pursue a career helping others through recovery.
“It’s not always been something I wanted to do,” she said of becoming a therapist. “But once I got to rehab and I saw all the people in there, including myself, and seeing how I progressed through it, it kind of made me want to do it and help out others.”
She has also become an unexpected source of inspiration for complete strangers who recognise her story.
“I’ll be two hours away from my house, in a random city in Florida, and they’ll recognize me and say, ‘Your story has really touched me. I’ve been following your story. You really inspire me,'” she said, adding, “I don’t really think anything of it, just because it happens so often, but it is really cool just how many people I have touched, I’m pretty sure.”
Sometimes, those encounters begin in an unexpected way.
“Some people will be like, ‘Where do I know you from?’ And I’m like, ‘I got attacked by a shark,’ and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s it,'” she said. “It’s kind of funny and humorous at times, and other times, it’s just like, I don’t realize how many people I have touched and what I’ve done.”
Despite everything she endured, Addison has never blamed sharks for what happened.
Instead, she encourages people to enjoy the ocean while respecting that humans are visitors in the animals’ natural habitat.
“You can’t just be mad at the ocean when you’re in [sharks’] territory,” Bethea said. “They know what they’re doing. They know what they want to eat. You’ve just got to be mindful of that.”
Authorities have also urged beachgoers to stay alert when entering the water, advising people never to swim alone, avoid areas where people are fishing, steer clear of sandbars and large schools of fish, and avoid making erratic movements while swimming.
Featured image credit: Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare
