Ella Reed, an eighth-grader, was swimming with a classmate at a beach in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Thursday when the incident occurred.
A 13-year-old girl who is interested about marine biology is persevering after fighting off a shark during a brutal attack that required 19 stitches.
Ella Reed, an eighth-grader, was swimming with a classmate at a beach in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Thursday when the incident occurred.
“I remember just breathing really heavily, and then when it latched onto my stomach, not being able to breathe at all because I was just like, ‘What the heck is happening?’” she said about the event in an interview with Today.
Reed claims that the shark, which she believes was a bull shark, began attacking her arm after she tried to fend it off while telling her buddy to flee.
“It bit me first in the stomach. “And right as it bit me in the stomach, I shoved my arm in there so it didn’t get my stomach, and it got my arm instead,” she added. “Then I hit it with my other hand, like I was hitting its nose or face.”
Today reported that Ella “was doing everything I could to get it off me.”
“It was all instinct,” Ella explained, “but when you’re in the moment, you don’t really think to do those things.” “I didn’t even mean to hit it in the nose, I was just trying to hit it anywhere.”
Devin Reed, her mother, told Today that she did not believe the attack occurred until she saw her daughter’s scars on FaceTime.
“At first, I thought she was joking, but she says, ‘I’m not joking!’” “And she took the camera and panned it on her body, and I just kind of froze and freaked out,” she explained. “Her first thought was to tell her friend to run, not to seek assistance.” She was rescuing a pal.”
After the mother and daughter reunited in person, the adolescent was driven to a neighboring fire station before being taken to an emergency room.
“I thought that would be much quicker and better for her, to get her into the best hands as soon as possible,” Devin explained.
Ella was left with five stitches on her body, 14 stitches on her leg, and difficulty sleeping as a result of the ordeal, but her mother told Today during their interview that Ella was eager to return to the sea.
“She’s like, ‘If I went through it, I’m going to show it to people,’” Devin explained.
