A teen suffered a shark bite while vacationing in Galveston. Photo: Fox 26 Houston//YouTube
Nineteen-year-old Damiana Humphrey was vacationing in Galveston, Texas when she experienced every swimmer’s worst nightmare. The Oklahoma resident and her siblings were in waist-deep water when she felt a sudden bite from what she estimates to be a four to five-foot long shark.
“As I was turning, a shark grabbed ahold of my hand,” she told Fox 26 Houston. “I looked down and there was a shark attached to my hand, so I guess I started punching it. That part is kind of blurry to me.”
After Humphrey retaliated, the shark promptly let go and swam away. Damiana quickly gathered her siblings and exited the water. From there, Galveston first responders took her to a nearby hospital, where she underwent surgery. As she told Fox, four tendons were severed and she will be unable to use her hand for a number of weeks.
“They said I should make a full recovery with my physical therapy,” she added. “Honestly, I’m just glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”
Shark attacks are already rare, but even more so in Galveston, as Galveston Beach Patrol Chief Peter Davis told Fox. While eight-million people visit area beaches each year, shark bites only occur every few years. “I’ve worked a few of them in my career and the ones I’ve seen were shark bites, not attacks,” he explained. “Meaning it was a case of mistaken identity where they latched onto a human and swam away. It sounds like this may have been similar to that.”
