A woman has survived a bull shark attack off Redington Shores Beach, Florida.
Jackie Forst, 68, was vacationing with her sister and friends July 23 when she and her sister Marilyn went for a swim before 8 p.m. They ventured into the low visibility water with pool noodles to play in the 1 1/2 to 2-foot waves.
There were quite a few other people already in the water, about 20 feet from shore in 4 to 5-foot deep water, when they heard a commotion in the water.
“We heard a huge noise behind us and turned to see two sharks breaching the water,” she told Tracking Sharks.
The South Carolina resident didn’t panic but she and her sister immediately headed to shore as fast as they could without splashing. They were in 3 1/2 to 4 feet of water when Forst felt a bump on her right leg and knew it was a shark.
“The shark then came around and grabbed my left leg. I felt a lot of pressure, but I did not panic or move. Then it released me. I remember thinking you actually bit me, you S.O.B!” she said.
With the shark trailing her, she continued as fast as she could toward shore. Marilyn, who was ahead of her, did not realize she had been bitten.
She was in 2 or 3 feet of water she saw the shadow of the shark move in front, perpendicular to her. She started screaming, “Get away from me, get away from me!”
She turned to run the rest of the way to shore before she fell down. Two men picked her up and carried her to the beach, and two sisters put towels around her leg and put pressure on the bites.
“I was bitten one time by a very large shark,” Forst said. “One side of the bite is at the knee, and the other side is about three inches from my ankle,” she said. The bites are on both sides of her leg.
Unknown to Frost, Stephanie Glenn and her sister who wrapped her leg in towels, saw two sharks feeding in deeper water and had started warning other swimmers of the sharks’ presence. Glenn saw the sharks swimming closer and closer before Frost was struck.
Glenn hurriedly grabbed towels as her sister stayed with Frost while two other beachgoers called 911.
Thankfully, the pressure of holding towels on the wound stemmed most of the bleeding until fire rescue medics arrived about 10 minutes later.
“John was the fire rescue person. He was great. Along with the medical treatment he kept me talking so I would not go into shock,” Forst said. “I remember watching the sun set as I was being treated on the beach.”
She was taken to Bayfront Medical Trauma Center where she received 10 stitches on her upper leg and was released around midnight.
The event won’t keep the lively swimmer out of the water. She grew up in St. Petersburg and is very comfortable in the water.
“I love the ocean but have always been afraid of sharks” she said, adding that she just got back from the beach where she did go swimming and broke in her new tattoo of two sharks swimming on her shark bitten leg to commemorate the event.
The location has been marked on the 2022 Shark Attack Map.
